Here is a poem that, I think, captures the spirit of autumn in Kansas City. I hope this poem helps us stay in touch with the autumns of our lives.
the leaf
it had budded and had grown like many of its peers it never had left home symmetrical and green the handsome little leaf had felt secure those many months when swaying boldly in the wind but then the air got colder and the little leaf turned red the day arrived when it no longer could hold on and off it fell it was a graceful falling as it floated through the air until it came to rest upon the ground its odyssey not done the little leaf was quickly greeted with a gust of wind obligingly it pirouetted till it lost its balance yet no sooner had it come to rest once more upon the ground than it was jostled by another gust of wind that blew it even further from its home the leaf compliant in its poses finally lay motionless upon the ground was this the journey of a lifetime for this little leaf or did its wandering live only in the memory of a nearby leaf that clinging saw it go and wondered as it sensed its own branch swaying in the wind and its own reddish hue if stronger winds were yet to blow
From Into the Wind © 2021 Charles Schlee