How I’d Love To Decipher Even the Traces of Every Leaf’s Language
Fallen leaves gather over my doorsteps,
…………..some beckoning for a touch.
………………………..I step over them, they’re still
warm inside, won’t break under pressure,
…………..yet sing a song of longing
………………………..to the abandoned branches
once heavy with nests filled with fluttering
…………..fledglings. Their silent song,
………………………..a score of a thousand shades,
spotted or tainted as though dipped into
…………..a watercolor wash, the way
………………………..paint bleeds over silk paper.
They seem to hang onto ephemeral
…………..moments. Some retain blood
………………………..in their capillaries while others
offer a paler, livid look before drying
…………..out into a symphony of ochres.
………………………..I walk through carpeted paths,
gather a few oak and maple leaves, burgundy,
…………..salmon, lemon, beige, arranging
………………………..them fanlike in a gradation of hues.
I marvel at how invasive vines turn dead
…………..trunks into artworks, strangling
………………………..them with deep purple, ruby
red or garnet wine ruffled foliage, lianas
…………..thickening year after year,
………………………..drunken with power.
The loss of leaves tells how there is beauty
…………..in aging, a beauty that gives
………………………..way to aches and stiffness
in the joints. Each leaf remembers the scar
…………..left in its birth place, sings
………………………..its pain in a vibrato of shades.
BIO
Hedy Habra is a poet, artist and essayist. She has authored three poetry collections, most recently, The Taste of the Earth (Press 53 2019), Winner of the Silver Nautilus Book Award, Honorable Mention for the Eric Hoffer Book Award, and Finalist for the Best Book Award. Tea in Heliopolis won the Best Book Award and Under Brushstrokes was finalist for the Best Book Award and the International Book Award. Her story collection, Flying Carpets, won the Arab American Book Award’s Honorable Mention and was finalist for the Eric Hoffer Award. Her book of criticism, Mundos alternos y artísticos en Vargas Llosa, examines the visual aspects of the Peruvian Nobel Prize Winner narrative. A sixteen-time nominee for the Pushcart Prize and Best of the net, and recipient of the Nazim Hikmet Award, her multilingual work appears in numerous journals and anthologies. www.hedyhabra.com
Beautiful story of the leaves, Hedy!