One red leaf
Settling and shining in the brook
Catches and holds the thinning light
Of an October afternoon
Its tentative crimson triumph
Shouting against the coming darkness
One tree stretched tall
Still holding its colors against blue sky
Scatters them shimmering into a pool
Casts them carefully deep
To catch the eye in wonder
And turn the gaze upward to the source
One watery cascade
Narrowed by its rocky path
Springs and splashes recklessly
Tumbling downward through black stone
Murmuring its endless song
Flinging light against its jagged prison
