-This poem reflects on the first early leaf of late summer, a gentle reminder that even at the height of abundance, change has already begun its quiet work.
Among the deep and certain green,
one yellow leaf lets go too soon,
turning slowly through the light,
until it finds the waiting ground.
The branches keep their summer still,
their fullness wide against the sky,
yet this small falling seems to know,
what all the season cannot hide.
No sorrow lives within its drift,
no hurried ending marks its path,
just one quiet sign that time,
moves even through the brightest days.
So much of high summer learns here,
that every fullness carries change,
the first leaf falling into earth,
already whispering of another season.