Descent of a Leaf

Just something that came to me in the minutes before sleep.

Springtime warm rays of sunlight awakens a leaf

A leaf that slept as a bud

Tentatively it sprouts, opening itself to the world

A leaf on a tree welcomes the sun

In the light there is energy, soaked up and absorbed

The tree takes this energy and lets it sustain

And summer comes

The leaf always working for the tree

The sun, the earth and the rain gives them life

And summer leaves

Autumn offers less light

The leaf loses its usefulness

It used to give to the tree but now it only takes

And even though the leaf gave so much to the tree

The tree starts to see the leaf as a burden

It will not sustain the leaf

The leaf is cut off

Alone it cannot survive

Slowly dying, it turns yellow and red

Like the warm light of the sun

The sun that once awakened it

The sun that once sustained it

The sun that now has left it

Perhaps the last thing a leaf feels

Just before it hits the ground

Is a deep longing for what was

For a time when the tree still needed it

A time when the sun would still kiss it

But a leaf's role is to be used

During the happy days of spring and summer

Perhaps it does not know

But come autumn and winter

It will surely die

Author's Note

I really don't do poetry. I don't even know what makes a poem a poem, so I've probably broken a million rules.