Young gentlemen in suits flatter their aristocratic partners
Cupids dance merrily around the young lovers’ heads
And play hide-and-go-seek near lovely Venus
Young love like a spring blossom blooming towards the sun for nourishment
Innocent, lacking the layers of petals of its wise and ancient neighbors
Hopeful as the light that frolics across the shining blue water


But lurking in the background is a melancholy breeze
It pathetically saunters across the happy scene
Leaving ladies with long, downcast faces
And a trail of dreary colors where its feet stepped
It taints the spring air, crushes its innocence, its hope
It darkens the white naiveté of its youthful spectators
Under its breath it mutters an unspoken truth known yet feared by all lovers
Its words stir up a ferocious wind that rattles the branches of the trees


A single crimson leave spirals slowly to the lush, green grass below.