October sun shines on the foliage palette
Glowing color codes to identify the trees
Shades of red and yellow standing out
Against the clear blue sky.
Advancing color seeps in the dark of night
Touching first the outside ends of branches
Flowing from the leaf edge to the stem
Peeling away the living green.
There is no need to recognize each kind of tree
To enjoy the transition of translucent light
Filtered through the seasonal leaves
Before the next wind gust plucks them away.
There is a hidden life of trees for us to discover
Like the giant oak passed by the other day
Standing there in the old church graveyard
Limbs stretched out over the huge trunk.
Today reading the news story that the tree is dead
Died last summer in the August heat wave
Thought to be 600 years old, older than the cemetery
Witness to all that has come and gone around it.
The trees cannot communicate with us directly
Living in a different time frame
Providing their own sustenance
Rooted to the global warming earth.
The generation of leaves that will soon crunch underfoot
Signal through their colors that they are retired
Their days of photosynthesis work completed
With next year’s buds formed on the tree of life.
