Leaves / Return (Poem)

Leaves/Return

I see brown leaves running down the highway.

They look terrified.

They dodge, jump and skip

This way and that
As they try to avoid the cars.

With a drowned-out crunch and a cloud of dust

Molecules of leaf-skin are released
To the throbbing pavement
And the complicated air

What is left of the leaf, smaller now

Continues to run
But another
And then another
And then another car
Dismembers them
Until finally…

With a great heave
And a simple sigh

The leaf soul returns

To the clouds in the sky.

At first they complain

To the great green god
Who simply smiles a rainbow hue
Until they laugh
And forget the fast cars
And the dark strip of crushed rocks
And remember other things:

Like unexpected warmth

On a wet mother limb

And their first peek from dark bark
At springtime blue sky and
Stern but smiling clouds;

And the young couple that sat in their shade

Looking at one another
In the same way that the great green god
Looks at them now,
Their eyes smiling rainbows; 

They recall the pleasant change

That made them into translucent light
And the peace they felt
As they released
To the sweet earth
That they had always admired
From a distance.

The great green god, knowing the answer

Then asks the leaf spirits
If they would like to visit again
To the place of the
Incomprehensible Dichotomy of Peace and Terror.

When they look back with some trepidation

The great green god smiles
And says, 

“How about you try once again

But this time, as a raindrop?”

When the leaf spirits look back with wonder

Considering this
The great green god adds,

“You can reflect my light back in many colors
Like you did as mature leaves
Except it will be in the sky
And you will give the people hope
And a reason to slow down
And pause, and wonder.”

 Leaf hands then raise.

 And raindrops fall down.

--Eric Marley

November 2012