Tiger Riding for Beginners

Traveling Poet Philosopher & Occasional Wiseacre

the last leaf
flutters to the ground
too soon for winter

every cascade
begins with drips and drops
and ends in the sea

the forest brightens
and i stumble out onto
a grassy plain

a breeze gusts,
and a moment later
leaves lazily fall

evergreens 
sprout through leaf litter -
scale model forest

the perfect tree
sits on a flat boulder -
roots clawing rock;
stunted and deformed,
but very much alive

the foothills seen
through flame-colored leaves
look painted

rushing waters
empty into a basin
and are still

trees are bare,
and the grass is brown -
graveyard winter

through the tree gap
cold mountains glow warm
in the setting sun