ABPA - Australian Bush Poets Association

A Leaf on the Ground

© Stephen Whiteside 23.10.2011

While walking I found
A leaf on the ground.
By gust of wind hurled,
It lay tightly curled,
While the path where it sat
Lay out open and flat.

So easily rent
Was the leaf, while cement
Will last through the years.
It never sheds tears.
It never feels fears
Nor the scorn of its peers.

They knew what they meant
When inventing cement
For a street or a drive.
But 'they' were alive.
They knew they'd not last.
They'd be trapped in the past
With the passage of time.
Still, life is sublime.

Better to live and to know you must die
Than be doomed as a footpath forever to lie.

The leaf that fell down,
It is dead, it is brown,
But once it was green,
The sweetest thing seen,
While the footpath, dull grey,
Will remain dull and grey
Till the end of the day.

Give me one season
Of feeling and reason
Than days never ending,
Uncaring, unbending.

I might win. I might lose.
If you ask me to choose
'Tween a path and a leaf,
Despite risk of grief,
I would go with one bound...
For a leaf on the ground.

I like that Stephen. An original approach, a few interesting little curls and surprises in the verse which make for an enjoyable read.

G'day Stephen.

Your poem took my eye.

First the structure of the verse: short lines with last word syllable masculine rhyme.

Hence the last word (in rhyme) is flat.

I imagine it took some time to write.

Kinda flat like a dead leaf and the surface of concrete.

A master stroke mate.

John

Thanks John, Neville.

Hello Stephen,

More visions you give us and the two little puffs of breeze within the rhyme inspired this little scribble.

I do like your brain!!!

Worddancer

That's beautiful, really beautiful!

Glad you liked it Stephen; it's yours now'

Thank you. I will treasure it.