Autumn Leaves Poem by Nadeem Ishaque

Leaves on my maples are on fire
I behold in awed fascination
Countless colors
Crimson, burgundy, purple
Hues of red
Yellow, orange, gold
Randomly spread
Shades with no name
Motley variegation
A stunning mixture
Of shapes and texture
All ablaze
A majestic display of brilliance
Vivacity and radiance
Life's joyous celebration

Spellbound
It crosses my mind
Perhaps the leaves possess
A vague premonition
Of something inauspicious
Even sinister
An uneasy foreboding
Of their impending fate
When lifeless on the ground
Trampled by countless callous feet
Or swept by a careless gust of wind
Their spectacle dazzling but brief
Passes unceremoniously
Into eternal oblivion

Is the conflagration then a mere protest
One last plea to winter's tempest
To avert Nature's inexorable decree
And forgo their inevitable condemnation?

Or is it that
Their apparent ostentation
Is the blooming at last
Of a desire that was hidden
Restrained and muffled
By dull routine
Daily sustenance and survival?
Or perhaps
A love that was subsumed
Trapped and consumed
In the viscous cycle
Of greedy ambition
As a substance green
Converting sunlight to nutrition
Overwhelmed the colorful tannins
That were always present
But in the daily pursuit
Of efficiency and production
Material enrichment
Never found their expression

Have I not suffered the same
O maple leaves in flame
Tawdry aspirations
Bereft of beauty
Consuming the spirit
In endless accumulation
A desire tamed
If not extinguished
By dolorous repetition
A life inauthentic
Where love has eluded
To engulf my heart
And mount my soul
In a thousand colors
Of rhapsodic composition

And do not I within myself contain
A spontaneous proclivity
For an unspoken anxiety
At the impermanence
Of all that is beautiful
Meaningful
Majestic
Wonderful
And Nature's indifference
To human predicament
In its blind and fearsome rotation

But tonight let us rejoice
O maple leaves on flame
In your bold magnificence
Your brilliance
Vivacity and radiance
And the secret bond
Of our common condition
Tonight
I too shall set myself free
Of all necessity
Sordid ambition
And frivolous expectation
Tonight
Let us burn together
With infinite desire
Embrace the love we lost
In life's ruinous mire
Tonight
Let us flaunt our beauty
Carelessly
Like sparks from a fire
Tonight
Let us be drunk
On wine from the lips of love
And savor the intoxication
Until the moment when Sky
In its relentless turning
Looks down
And holds us in derision