GUIDELINES 

THE LEAVES THAT FALL
by
Roy A. Barnes

Part One: Fall of the Ages

A mystery was in the air the fall my love approached.
Unaware of its grasp, as I witnessed leaves shunning their branches,
I kept walking on to my destination, taking it all for granted.

I fell to slumber one autumn night on the verge of discovery.
In my dream-state, she parted from me as the leaves part from the trees,
But I awoke, feigning the symbolism: she had fully blossomed in my heart.

Celebrations were in the air that fall when love fell upon me.
The Yankees, with their abilities and will to win
Came back from sure defeat to become champions as the leaves were swept away.

If only my abilities and will to love
Could’ve won her heart, so as to begin a season of promise.
Yet, like many leaves that fall, I was blown further away with each northeaster.

Part Two: The Late Summers After

Regret is in the air when fall approaches.
Haunted by what could’ve been, as the leaves plot desertion,
I stop so many times to mourn those leaves of boyhood which died in uselessness,

And to imagine their demise wasn’t in vain after all:
That I experienced the meaning of her seasoned presence
As we threw the brittle corpses at each other (the promise of spring in the bantering).

My chums’ voices are in the air when fall approaches ...
Memories of running with the pigskin until I’m trounced to the hard, cool earth.
The leaves were my buffer, yet they could’ve been more!

I remain on the ground (breathless from gaining yards)
Until the aroma from smoldering chimneys fans the memories of my hapless fall:
The leaves are still my mocker ... why couldn’t they have been more?

The Cottonwoods’ fate is in the air when fall approaches.
I seek another season for passion as these trees seek new covering for winter.
They won’t find it: Will this, too, be my destiny?

Can I be redeemed from my sin of distant futility
(When the leaves were soulmates to the giants that summer before I fell:
As if they’d never cease being together ... when I took it all for granted)?

© 2008 Roy A. Barnes

Roy writes from southeastern Wyoming. His poetry and prose have been featured at Poesia, Skive Magazine, The Goblin Reader, The Kids' Ark, Skatefic.com, The First Line and Literary Liftoff.