Leaf

I often look down when I walk. Some folks think I'm stand-offish because I don't look at them or speak. What they don't know is that my balance is poor, my ankles unsteady, and my eyes focused on the small things on the ground. I walked one stride beyond this leaf after lunch today, turned around, went back, and picked it up.The leaf, like me, is fiery and translucent and intense and paradoxical. An unfaceted jewel or heart in close-up, fringed, veined, it is disconnected but not static.