Two Leaves

Best friends of the same tree

Bouncing and rolling,

Never thinking they’re not meant to be.

They whip and wind around each other,

Against advice from their mothers.

Their hope and love blinds them

Binds them, defines them.

The mothers know the winds,

Their hands wrung.

Children, they say,

You are much too young!

The children laugh and scream and kiss with passion,

Trusting only each other,

Their mother’s faces ashen.

The wind is coming,

They warn with no glee.

The mothers look on,

At these two leaves from the same tree.

The children feel the wind with fright,

How could this happen

They wonder at night.

They bounce and roll some more,

Trying to get back what they once had before.

The wind kicks up its beautiful storm

The children race to beat it,

With no barrier to form.

The wind sweeps one up and steals it away

Simply rattling the other,

No time to delay.

The leaf left behind

Blundering and broken,

One half of a whole

Everything gone,

Nothing spoken.