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