Leaves

Mission today: sweep leaves, blow leaves, rake leaves…
Make them take their leave.
The elephant truck came once with it’s leaf sucking trunk.
We have to bait it again with leaves like a pile of peanuts.
I wonder how many of these once partners
in photosynthesis lie lifeless out there?
Thousands, billions, trillions, bazillions…
It’s like trying to fathom the national debt.
Might God have a name for each of these little ones?
I mean, He has the hairs on our head numbered.
His thoughts toward us are more in
number than the grains of sand by the sea.
He has taken our sins and thrown them as
far as the east is from the west…how far is that?…Really.
He named every star…Hubble let us know
we can never get to the end of those.
So, if He did name the fallen did He get out the
book of names and start scanning?
Nick, Jill, Sam, Dillon, Charlie,
Jose’, Li, Bruno, Ski, Tan,
Fodder, Flake, Crunch, Ash.
If you’re thinking that I’m writing to
put off the task ahead, that is partially true.
I want to put a little depth in the pile that is to be.
Gathering leaves can be a transcending experience.
It’s not simply about finding one’s yard again unless
our imaginations have been blown out of the top
of our minds and lay to be raked up by duty and indifference.
So, Rejoice! We get to be in the midst of cyclical wonders
set up before we had hairs numbered on our head,
before our feet felt warm grains of sand,
before we caught on that west just keeps going on and on,
before we were overwhelmed by the density of the Milky Way…
Wow! I get to rake leaves today!