Leaf Litter 

 

Not a ripple disturbs the pond

in the hospital grounds.

Yellow, it reflects

the withering trees.

Like a fresh skin, it’s unwrinkled

even this close to endings,

untrammelled by each repeating day’s

harsh human news.

 

Jaundiced by autumn

you and I slip hands,

witness the release

of another umber leaf.

Weightless, it falls

like a burden through the air

to drift on the pond’s

smooth surface.

 

(from Carol McKay’s Reading the Landscape, Hedgehog Press, 2022)