CLINGING LEAVES
The sky is gray.
A chill is in the air
And in the trees
A few leaves cling --
Yesterday's memories
Lingering there.
Thanksgiving is
The customary day
To be thankful for the harvest.
Lest we forget the leaner years.
Those straggler leaves I see
Are solitary sentinels
Left providentially.
Hair, gray like the autumn sky
Adorns my head today,
Garnishing the memories,
Gray matter stores away,
And though these locks are thinning Like the leaves upon the trees,
I'm grateful -- and I hope they bring
More thankful days like these.
So when the autumn leaves do fall
In the delinquent few
I delight,
Then as the winter comes
And my waning locks turn to white
I'll be thankful again
Because, like those clinging leaves,
Somewhere
You'll fine me
Hanging in there.
Lee (May '05) is in the midst of moving back to his northern home state after many years of living in Florida.