The Skeleton Leaf

Night revealed no other reminder
of the trodden path that I will take
Than the framework left behind
by this leaf beside my feet.

Once an emerald king
now brown and wilting
Among a thousand other brothers
Buried until spring.

Crisp and fragile wire outline
of a life that now retreats
to a grave and final place
In the soil beneath our feet.

A weary fate we all shall share
man and leaf
under the soil
Beneath our feet.