Evenings Like This

I look up and I want to capture the colors
in the sky, swirls of pastels only a little girl would wear

The light blue sky is mixed with a palette of twilight hues,
periwinkle and lavender and blush and orange,
softness blending and settling into each other

Above me, a lone leaf twirls on its stem, willing itself to be free,
but the branch is not yet ready to let go, to let the leaf
take its exit from the herd and waft toward the world

I walk toward the underground world, passing the leaf
and the Flatiron building behind it, toward the twilight,
a litany of lilting steps marching toward a washed sky, a fading day


Written: 10/5/09