Brown Leaf on an Autumn Branch

[good4somethingbum]

Brown Leaf on an Autumn BranchSpent that October morning, browsing video storesOnly one place in the mall, sells “High Noon” anymoreHad it gift-wrapped for my Dad, got him a birthday cardTried to think of what to write, that’d touch his tender heartThen walking to my pick-up, thinkin’ of my old mannear an icy shopping cart, was a brown leaf on an Autumn branchI thought of how the sharpest thorn, in a Cheyenne rose’s sideWas the soft and simple waning, of summer warmth and lightHow dad said life was full of dreams, back when he was twentyBut now the river of his time was running on emptywho can hold back the seasons, when fate has the upper handev’ry breeze might be his last, like a brown leaf on an Autumn branchbut maybe grass n clovers, are just sleeping in their clothessnuggled in winter blankets, till they rise from melting snowsso I wrote that I loved him, and mailed it to my old mancos love can make an oak, from a brown leaf on an Autumn branchthen on my next birthday, I got a cd from my sonsaid he hadda look all day, for something by Neil Youngas I played those old songs, my mem’ries seemed to dancethey danced for their life, like a brown leaf on an Autumn branch©2007 Robert George