Life, as it turns out,
is not always instructional —
less and less so, in fact, these days

There is a statement
in the curl and color of a fallen leaf,
the reddened stems
of blackberry and bracken fern

But they don’t seek to teach,
just to be,
just to let the light of this one
moment of afternoon
glow through them,
just to rest in light gravity
against the cool ground,
or to stand still
in the pauses between the wind.

©Wendy Mulhern
October 26, 2019