Autumn

there’s something in the way
the leaves change
as the air gets thinner with cold.
the farthest edges curl up to hug the spines
of sacred channels that carry the maps of ancestral wisdom
handed down from acorn to acorn into the present.
as the life leaves the canopies of trees
what leaves are left rustle like the rain—
every gust evoking the spirit of a rainfall
falling to the ground
life ebbing back into the earth as the veil thins
and the days become dark once again.