Fall Prey

Lift up your voice, insomniac earth

Summon the leaves to you from the mute grief of their mothers

The fingers of light are delicate

Caressing the wholesome geometry of their faces

Teaching them to catch the catechism of the wind

Shepherding the baffled water through their paper veins

Counseling them to cultivate courage enough for the plunge

Into the feast for roots that is their forgotten father

Gravity will arrange a reunion

From which there is no leaving

Fear holds at arms length

For a trembling instant

An embrace as inevitable as time

Naivety painted these leaves green

How easily they mistook spring for eternity

They were sure dew would always bathe their sky scanning smiles

Tender and fresh, they drank dogma

There was no other way to be

Suns are not always friendly

Proximity can turn an angel into an assassin

Theophanies blind mortal eyes with ecstasy

Summer stirs a menagerie of mad mouths

Loss is a language leaves learn from her

Night never needs their leave to fall

Morning turns their despair into incredulous shame

Awe is the signature autumn leaves

On each of their fragile, flame colored forms

Fullness stretches every cell taut as a student

Some strain so with life, they secretly aspire

To slacken and wither into the truth of death

October should have a reputation for mercy

How slow we are to understand

The necessary symmetry

Of orange endings

Leaves ache to be taken

There is occult joy in tan rotting

Relinquishing a temporary shape

To furnish the future with a foundation

Black and rich as a pharaoh

The language of the living

Is plagiarized from the diaries of the dead

Every leaf learns this secret

From the fall