Fallen Leaf Poem by Hm. Nes

Once, and not so long ago
I was a brilliant leaf
A true specimen of beauty
Lofty, intricately formed
Delicately swaying in the breeze-
On display for all the world to see

Children would stop and stare, saying,
'Look at the color! '
'Look at him go! '
Fluttering with the wind,
Bending, free as a bird

But then I fell
I fell in the fall,
And though I struggled to stay above the pile,
Soon I was smothered, trampled-
Now, I'm all but unrecognizable,
Blackened from the mold,
Melded into the mesh and mush
In a colorless pile of decaying waste-
Good for nothing
Completely forgotten-
Like an injured super star,
A voiceless singer,
A tarnished preacher,
An unseated politician,
A childless mother,
A retired teacher,
A wounded soldier
Home at last from an unpopular war

But then the gardener came-
His whimsical grin assuring me that
I am somehow valuable to him,
Though he slayed me completely-
And my life, with all its broken bits,
Has become part of the mixed-up mess-
Nutrients for the new-formed leaves-
Those who have taken my place
In the high, honored bough
I once claimed as my own