The Leaf And The Tree And The Roots Poem by RIC BASTASA

if i had to write it again
then i had to, as i must

let you fully understand
the true nature of a vine

the way the leaf swerves
with the wind to give itself

to a fateful fall, the one that
completes its existence as

a leaf to a tree, a part of
a whole, the way it must

settle on the ground and
be with the worms and rot

and fulfills the cycle of its
short existence, and by then

it tells the roots, i am a leaf
i am back and you must now

eat everything in me so i can
be with the bark again so i

can be a leaf again to a tree
that holds me back

and then for another time
lets me fall again.