The leaves, the leaves are everywhere
 

Slick and wet from last night’s rain
 

Or dry and crunchy where they fell in today’s sunshine.
 

I am running on the turf beside the path,
 

The grass and ground like cushions for my joints.
 

And everywhere the leaves are brown and golden underfoot.
 

 

And when I slid down the hill on leaves with you
 

I laughed to feel my bum hit roots and rocks along the way.
 

Pulled down the steep slope I descended towards a distant bottom
 

While love like the opposite of gravity pulled up my heart to unknown heights.
 

And everywhere around like an endless sea
 

The leaves sprayed up and out in my joyful wake.
 

 

And when I raked the leaves in our backyard
 

We made mounds as high as mountains
 

My son sank deep into the insubstantial surface
 

And lay buried like an ancient relic
 

As all around I tossed the leaves like coloured dirt with my trusty spade
 

To dig up the hidden treasure, deep within the cave of foliage.
 

 

And when we kiss in the autumn,
 

The wind will whirl around us
 

Tornadoes of turning streams of leaves
 

And cover our clinging bodies
 

As if we were transported elsewhere
 

Drowned in the mad merry go round of colour.
 

 

And when I jog along the path this eve,
 

My feet reach through the shoes
 

To grab for the slick, the red, the golden and the brown
 

To grasp for the dry ground cover like an ape,
 

Knowing that the season is changing
 

And holding on to the leaves, everywhere floating over the restless, moving sea of life.