A Leaf Drifts Down a River Winding

A leaf drifts down a river winding

A rudderless raft, I watch it flutter at the surface and

Bid the ferry farewell

Beyond the bend, into obscurity

Guided by currents, it sails on

Whoever thought that an ocean bound leaf reads like literature?

A veritable ferry, vessel, boat, raft

A canoe, skiff or dinghy

Whose purpose it is to transport

To carry weight across distances

To view far off shores

To commune with the rhythm of tides

With circular eddies and storms and creatures that stir beneath

The leaf trundles along a river winding

It observes, it absorbs, it lays witness, it gives voice

It touches fallen limbs and embraces submerged boulders

It rushes beneath bridges and teeters at rocky edges

A wave of water pushes it over as if in denouement

And it collapses, spinning, head over tail

Into the white water beneath

Past tongues that lap at the water’s edge

Through villages, suburbs, farms and cityscapes

A leaf turned tug boat lending assistance

A leaf turned three-masted ship

A leaf turned churning engine of vast fishing vessels, netting the ocean’s floor

Hauling up abundance, dredging up rock bottom

The leaf trundles along a river winding

Sometimes coolly objective, other times blistered in feeling

A looking glass that travels where nature dictates

Where the author finds motive to set ink to paper

A hitchhiker traveling the spine of time