All About Time Poem by R.A. Burleigh

We sit while children crawl about happy
Toys are scattered like leaves
Red and orange and brown from my old house at 407
I never saw so many leaves, or so many children
In my future, in your room

There you are, the boy in the tree
And we have.come down, suddenly

I am corrupt with time
All my eyes are full of ghosts
All the ghosts join us in the leaves
and someone has lit the leaves on fire
O I do so love the smoke of all the leaves

And mother said
Don't stand so close

And Kate's mouth was so, wonderful
With kisses and songs
and that is all I could wish you, kisses and songs
Profound decisionis about babies
Kipling for supper, Yeats for breakfast

And father said: freedom is a breakfast food
He'd heard that somewhere and it pleased him

And your brother read me Langston Hughes over the phone
And I replied with Ken Patcher
O lord the leaves are burning magic smoke
And you and I begin to dance
Like the time in Washington you showed me Ti-Chi

If I have not said it enough
I am so loud and proud of you

And your sister said your son needs to work on his spelling
She and you among the leaves dashing near the goat pen
All these maple leaves near my old chestnut tree
And the smoke fills my eyes
Round prairie is a beacon of fire

There you are the boy in the tree
And we have come down suddenly

Ray Burleigh