Leave Taking

Leave Taking
by Michael R. Burch

 
Brilliant leaves abandon battered limbs
to waltz upon ecstatic winds
until they die.
 

But the barren and embittered trees,
lament the frolic of the leaves
and curse the bleak November sky . . .
 

Now, as I watch the leaves' high flight
before the fading autumn light,
I think that, perhaps, at last I may

have learned what it means to say
goodbye.
 

Published by There is Something in the Autumn (anthology), Mindful of Poetry, The Lyric

I wrote this poem around age 14 or 15, imagining what it would be like to grow up and say goodbye to one’s children!