Autumn naturally

Let’s face it
           the leaves are dead
a gust of wind
           sends them up into the sky
and for a while they float
           as they come drifting down
to the ground
           and I see them
from the bay window
           and think that there’s
a lesson to be learnt here
           green gone to a golden rust
supple life turned
           friable to the touch
and all of this
           the way of the world
but the atoms are not dead
           and I know of no way
in which they might
           decompose : surely
they will enter the earth
           and be drawn up
via the web of roots
           to flourish once again
on a living branch
           one distant spring
that I doubt you or I
           will ever see

John Lyons