Story of a Leaf

The leaf that tumbled in the wind
knew not where its destiny lay,
for in its past a dream arose
one bright and sunny day.

When spring had just awoken
and the leaves were alive with dew,
a tree stretched out its arms
and said hello to the season anew.

As the leaves sprouted forth
and grew slowly as each day passed,
one little leaf watched the passing folk
as they walked briskly past.

It watched as their legs took them
to places it never could
and wished, oh wished that one day soon
it could escape from its neck of the wood.

Swaying ever so slowly,
the wind let it move at its pace
and gave the leaf a little hope
as it swayed on for countless days.

And when the leaf dreamt no longer
and slowly lost its faith,
one day the wind grew stronger
and from the tree, swept it away.

And so the leaf had finally
said goodbye to its home the tree,
letting the wind blow it slowly
it felt happy, excited and free.

For days on end it traveled far,
saw many people on the streets,
it traveled where the wind took it
and didn’t choose who it had to meet.

It told itself how lucky
its life had been so far,
how it escaped the tired fate
of simply watching from afar.

So days had passed and it went on
following the pace of the wind,
one day it soon grew weary,
losing its shimmer from within.

Without the tree it had no way
to get its green color back,
it soon lost strength and quietly hoped
it wouldn’t fade to black.

Sadly one day the wind grew strong
and pushed the leaf somewhere,
at first it saw the light of day,
then soon it couldn’t feel the air.

The leaf found out it had fallen
to a sewer down below,
without the people, the air, the tree,
it felt there was nowhere else it could go.

It tried to cry but couldn’t
as it lay there in the dark,
it tried to remember the good old days
when it still lived in the park.

Soon the leaf already felt and knew
he was slowly dying away,
away from home and family,
and away from the light of day.

“So goodbye leaf, goodbye”
it quietly said to itself,
and it crumpled away to dust
with nothing more left.

©2009