Up ahead of me,
an orangegoldred leaf
from a pistache tree
comes twirling-ling-ling-ling
down,
down,
down
falling free
through the autumn air.
I watch the leaf
trace the turnings of
an upper-air eddy.
All of an instant,
the luminous leaf
stops falling down.
It swoops in a grand,
inexplicable arc
over my head,
swinging back and forth,
then hanging suspended
in the middle of the air,
higher than before,
and twirls,
and spins,
and whirls
up there.
Baffling! Beautiful!
I cock my head up,
watching, searching,
until a spark of sunlight
glances off a single silken
thread of spider web
attached to the tip of the leaf.
The leaf isn’t falling.
It is anchored somewhere
in mystery, flying free
on an illusory wisp
so marvelously made,
that diameter for diameter
this single thread of web
is said to be
stronger
than steel.
Perhaps we are all
not falling,
all invisibly
tethered at the top of the head
to a mystery source unseen,
only believing we are flying free.
Ann Keiffer
November, 2010
Photo Credit: Flickr Creative Commons License nlewis
