Leaf

(Written as a WordsFlow exercise 11 Nov. 2011 and just rediscovered.)

I found a brown leaf, curled and twisted, with one red spot on the front near the stem, and a little hole the other end, like a pinprick. Did an insect start to eat it and give up? Did it get damaged falling from the tree? What tree? The wind must have blown it quite a way. It has yellow spots too, very small, very faint, and the veins are strongly marked in darker brown. The underside is paler, more golden brown. The stem is only half as long as the leaf. It’s a graceful, pretty thing, scalloped, fluted, with a point at the tip. It’s ephemeral, isn’t it? If I take it home to keep forever, it will dry and fade and crumble and I’ll end up throwing it away. I’ll throw it away now, back to the air and the earth.