I sit here in fall
watching yellow leaves -
their brothers still tinged with green -
piroette to earth.
Pigeons coo
and peacocks strut by -
the geese do their thing I'm sure
but I avoid those paths and ponds.
I had never seen a duck dive
til I came here
and one plunged after a sinking scrap.

Children babble in the distance
and I think of the young man
more captivated by tiny humans than I -
how his face lights up with wonder -

Sunlight flits through leaves into my eyes
and I reflexively brush at my face
the way he's brushed my hair from his eyes-
All this beauty, but I just want his face.