LEAF

I was seven - just seven - just realizing -

what it means to be alive - getting

glimpses - unconscious glimpses -

that toy guns run out of caps or water -

and have to be refilled. I was just starting

to notice caterpillars and mosquitoes -

and outside my window so many

green leaves were waving to me in the wind.

All this happened in October.

Well, one day looking out my window -

I felt delight in noticing that all those

green leaves had slowly become gold,

orange, tan, red, yellow flags. While

watching all this I saw a leaf falling -

slowly spinning  down to the ground.

Wow! I ran outside to find it. Impossible.

Yet I found it. I picked it up

and brought it into our house.

I put it on the brown bureau in the

back bedroom my brother and I shared.

The next day, I could see

it was dead, really dead, dried, crisp -

just like very thin toast. Was outside

for a while and when I came in I noticed

my mother threw it out - without asking.

I guess falling, dying, drying up and

being dumped without my permission

is something I have had to learn

over and over again.

© Andy Costello, Reflections, 2013