Autumn Mortality
Autumn is the time of the dying leaf
I watch one waft gracefully
down to the surface of a canal
joining a flotilla of yellow leaves.
Hardly moving in the almost
wind-still noiseless air
the faint smell of decomposition
marking the slow movement
of matter after death.
A calm space opens in my mind
and with it the unsettling thought
that I am closer to death than I have ever been.