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FALLING THROUGH LEAVES
 

I feel ~

Like a leaf 
From the Tree of Life once sapped 
Now snapped 
Floating nowhere I know where 
Blown by a cold wind 
Not of my making 
The boughs that once held me 
Now soughing and aching 
My heartwood is breaking. 

I fall ~

Like a leaf 
From the Tree of Promise once golden 
Now olden 
Sucked dry, brown and cracking 
Drawn down by hard times 
Into a forest of no rest 
Where flaming and screaming 
A future once seeming 
Infinite 
Becomes fodder for fungi. 

I ponder ~ 

A leaf 
From the Book of History once supple
Now stiffened
Whose pages though turned, reveal a past unlearned 
And a future spurned
For fortunes unearned
By marauders and murderers.

And I wonder ~

As I leaf
Through the pages of my life
Seeing the bookmarks and notations
The exclamations and expectations
The marginalia and illustrations,
I ask myself,
Was I ever the subject of
My own life sentence?
Or was I rather someone else's predicate?



Keep it real!
Marilyn

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