To a Leaf Falling in Winter

At sundown when a day’s words

have gathered at the feet of the trees

lining up in silence

to enter the long corridors

of the roots into which they

pass one by one thinking

that they remember the place

as they feel themselves climbing

away from their only sound

while they are being forgotten

by their bright circumstances

they rise through all of the rings

listening again

afterward as they

listened once and they come

to where the leaves used to live

during their lives but have gone now

and they too take the next step

beyond the reach of meaning