Falling Significance

Oak, Maple, Beechwood — any deciduous tree will do.

Leaves depart from branches that gave life and purpose through temperate climates.

How could something so necessary be abandoned by its creator

and exiled to the depths of the cold, hardening ground?

Once a thriving beneficiary and benefactor of life,

now a fragile, crinkled and lifeless thing for

animals to trample, adults to curse from manicured lawns, and children to jump in.

A necessary evil? Perhaps.

Why does something so meaningful in this world become so meaningless?

Hang on, dear leaf.

Cherish the whipping whirls of a spring’s first rain,

and the warm wind of a blue sky summer’s day.

FREE, like an American flag, taking flight from a gust we cannot see but know so well.

But, little leaf, you have no say in the matter.

Created with quintessential purpose, you will die with none and be cast into inanimateness;

Merciless, is abscission.

Time is relative. That’s what they say.

Relatively short is the wondrous life of a leaf.

A magnificent sight in your elderly years — hues of yellow, orange, red;

a fire burning across the vast landscape of our world beyond the horizon.

Know of your destiny, you do not.

All that rises, must fall.

All that lives, must die.

Rules of the circle are unobjectionable,

and there is no. way. out.

Hold on.

Enjoy the force of gravity and power of the wind in this beautiful and unforgiving world.

It will all be over soon.