Silver Leaves Fell

Silver Leaves Fell

I dreamt last night
An orphaned boy wandered lost
Amid a crowd
Asking here, begging there
Reaching for a hand
Tears streaming down his eyes,
No one noticed
Unless he danced
Sang
Shined their shoes.
They noticed him,
Not his tears
Not his determination
He knew where he needed to go
But he couldn’t get there alone,
Cause it burned inside him like tears and hunger
Burned his stomach.
Like loss and loneliness
Bubbled up like bile.

I dreamt last night
Of a lonely boy
He held out a quarter and a man took his hand.
Promised to show him the way.
Promised he’d traveled the same road.
Trust me.
Just don’t love me.
I’ll only hurt you.
I’ve too much love in my life
I can’t spare any for you
Lonely child.
But I’ll walk with you for a while.
I’ll listen for a while.

They found a quiet tree
Where the child cried
For himself
For mankind
For love he’d never known.
He felt better and slept beneath the tree.
When he awoke the man was gone.

He searched and searched.
From the top of a hill
He watched the man laughing, playing with the other children.
He smiled.
Then he heard the song they sang.
Of the pathetic lonely boy
Poor thing
Poor wretched thing
To never know love
More the better for us
More quarters for us.
More for those that matter
For those who believe.

The man saw the boy on the hill
He waved at him.
The boy just turned and walked away.
All the beauty he gave turned upon itself
All the things he said evaporated
And with it the desire to fight
With it, the desire for love
For life.
His knees buckled.
The earth reached up and tugged at him
His legs becoming roots
His arms branches
Silver leaves sprouted and
Fell like tears.

A sad sullen tree
Forced to listen to their song
Till the end of their time came.
And his silver leaves fell like tears
When he watched them fall one by one.
He couldn’t help it
He loved despite their hurt
He felt each loss despite their
Disregard.
Despite the loneliness.
Despite the falling silver leaves.
He loved.
Till life could grieve no more.
He died amidst a gathering of silver leaves.

What was the point of all this?
He would never know.
Love sucks and life is fragile.
Love is greedy, and we are cowards.

The leaves blew away
As though it had never happened.
Had it?
Had it even mattered?
Does anything matter
When love sucks and we are cowards?