The air is cool and contemplative
The gray sky and fallen leaves make somber philosophers of us all
Nostalgia is in the air and deep in our souls
Picking up leaves
As if reaching down and grasping for lost summer
Each brown and faded leaf an integral piece of the summer scenery
Adorning our memories
Now looking down at the past summer
Crunching and decomposing at our feet
Now scooping up whole handfuls of the very stuff of summer
Inhaling the warm and intoxicatingly full aroma of leaf matter
If only we breathe deep enough
Maybe we will catch hints of barbecue smoke, carefree laughter, sparkler ash
Runaway drops of sunscreen, and loose hummingbird chatter
Now raking our "gone but not forgotten" summer
Into smaller and smaller polygons
Now dragging the half-full jet black plastic sack over
And erasing the leafy polygons from the rake-brushed grass
Pushing the leaves deep into their plastic cocoon
Self-consciously aware of the deep implications of tying summer up
Throwing it away
And hiding it from view
Though perhaps every new summer is the sum total of each one past
The fallen leaves reforming
Swirling into new susurrations
New whispers in the wind
Yet still echoes of past rustles, fibers, blooms, and growths
Crescendoing into a triumphant din
Each black plastic sack full of leaves
A symbol of past glories and a type of those to come
You captured fall so well with this poem - thank you for writing it!