The Lesson of the Leaves

Only a few remain. Clinging to the ends of branches in the blowing winds. I wonder what keeps the stragglers hanging on while the others have long since let go. Mostly what I see as I drive the streets and highways now are the bare branches pointing up to the sky. The rest of the leaves have mostly all fallen to the ground. I've always been a bit spell-bound by this process. I even wrote a poem about it ten years ago:

I'm goin' through an uneasy-feeling
     time with things
        a-changin'.
Don't wan't them to change too fast
     as the leaves on the ground
quickly change from red to brown,

but as the ones
                          left
on the trees
                     grace~
fully changin,
kind of slow
                     and gently,
                                        at peace.

And when the time comes, not struggling
       to hang on,
but going
                with
                        the
                              bre
                                      e

                                   z
                                          e
                                               !