Fallen Leaves
Those who walk with Marco Polo
are filled with wonderous tales
and those who sit with Emily…
oh, oh….
—Carlos Ramirez
Fallen leaves.
Blessed is one
who never leaves home,
by choice,
and each season
confirms the rightness
of fallen leaves.
To those natives
or foreign born
to whom "place"
holds no vines
may they be blessed
with touch
of fallen leaf
upon face.
Still Life
One chooses this, that,
arranging form, line and color:
an apple, a bowl, a vase of flowers.
A bit to the left the bowl,
this flower behind, one
to the left, the apple turned.
One paints the apple red,
the bowl with a trace of blue,
flowers one by one.
This painting is called "still life,"
erroneously as it is painted in light—
hesitant, light known
to those in Provence,
those who painted at Lascaux.