Sad, beautiful tree

Is the tree sad in autumn when its leaves fall to earth,

the earth that holds the leaves as gently, as fully as the tree?

Will the tree cry sad and lonely tears – it stands alone, after all –

for the gentle leaves it has cradled until now?

In winter, so it seems as drops of rain fall onto, fall from the branches.

The tree mourns then – another season passes, another year is gone.

Even as the leaves fall,

the rich beauty of falling into another day,

another season gone.

Beauty remains, for those of us who see.

——Mary Elyn Bahlert, 2/2025