An autumn leaf
Falls
The metaphysical clock
Marks the point
Preset as an awakening alarm
Signalling the appointed time
When this small miracle is to occur
The confluence of this mighty clock's gears and cogs
Dictate that I am to be present
When this leaf and branch
Repeat the annual expectation
Of their deciduous inheritance
(Or maybe I just happened to be there
When a gust of wind
And quiver of the branch
Caused the leaf
To fall -
I mean, it had to happen sometime)
Never-the-less,
I watch
The path the leaf takes
As it descends -
Breeze, thermal and atmosphere -
All in accord
With its own unique leafy aerodynamics -
Play keepings off
With its gravity bound
Inevitability.
Suddenly
A brilliant shaft of light -
A ray of sunlight
That has found a clear path
Through the dappling
Overhead canopy -
Intercepts the leaf's
Vacillating trace.
The impact is foudroyant
And I am outside the scene.
In less time than a thought
I am whipped through a complete
360 degrees multi-camera sequence
Separated and orbiting,
I am witness to myself and the leaf,
The leaf and myself.
Unknowingly, I have joined the chorus
Of every magnificat
Spontaneously drawn to the lips
Of all those before me
And all those to come
Who have been encompassed
And transported
By an instance of the everyday.
Subsequent to this moment of infinity
The leaf continues its wavering flight
Until it settles on the moist and cushioned collection
Of those that have gone before
And are now adding themselves
In self-decompositional sacrifice
To the humus of the future.
A blackbird -
Yellow beak at the ready -
Hops and pecks, hops and pecks
Through the mulchy dregs
Seeking some unwitting worm
Who, unbidden and unknowing
Will be transformed from
Composting assistant
To blackbird dinner
In the coincidence of location and beak.