Rachel Habraken's "Crossing" follows a shadow through a changing season. It appears first on a grey morning, then beneath the autumn trees, and finally at a "cross way" where one season gives way to another. The shadow seems to stand for a person, someone the speaker addresses as "you," though the poem never says who they are or what has happened to them. The closing line, where the shadow "fades" into the speaker's existence, suggests loss, memory, or a presence that is slowly turning into something inward.
The speaker's feeling is quiet and wistful rather than openly sad. Nothing is shouted or explained. The trees "stand in silent solemnity" as they say goodbye to their leaves, and that stillness sets the mood: hushed, reflective, a little hollow. Autumn's ending and winter's arrival mirror a different kind of parting, so the poem reads as a gentle farewell. The title, "Crossing," fits both the change of seasons and the moment someone passes from one state into another.