It spoke to me

Not literally of course – it’s a leaf.

It said simply “pick me”. Of the myriad sticks, stones, mundane oddments and other leaves I was passing, this one item alone spoke.

Autumn has yet to arrive, but this leaf along with a few others had lost its anchor and fallen to Earth already.

Not quite perfect. Slightly asymmetrical even. Beautiful nevertheless. Peach-tinted rather than simple red. A little bruised from its exciting voyage through life, but far from broken by the experience.

I wanted to know it better; understand its inner workings; figure out why it had the power today to stop me mid-stride and say “pick me”.

So I did.

Salted away for later