Emergent, See

Autmn leaves leave

mismatched imprints on the concrete,

trampled into semi-permanent

stamps,

whatever that means.

Either something lasts,

or it doesn't —

eternity is cousin

to ephemerality, not brother.

Distant, at that,

but I digress.

These chalk outlines,

where the remains of garish tears

shed by "dying," trees

(those drama queens —

they'll outlive every one of us)

are pulverized

by uniquely human hurriedness...

It all compounds the evidence.

Hallmarks of a hungry,

hungry world.

When we

so much as step outside,

we must take care

not to be made lesser for it.

A candle may be capable

of lighting thousands more

without diminishing its own flame,

but an errant,

cantankerous gust

will blow it out, nonetheless.

Therein lies the rub —

after years of coerced seclusion

we are starved

for one another's luminescence

to a fault.

We venture, in acquiescence,

at the risk of our own spark,

catapulting

into darkness

and shoving fear to the back seat,

slaves to our urge

to share.

But that ravenous wind

with its cavernous appetite

for Life and Light,

it billows down

from miles above our heads,

warning us:

"Defy me at your peril."

It is a crisis

of hesitation,

but anagnorisis

may yet bring salvation.

Harken to the dissonant spilling

of once-greedily-guarded secrets.