Abscission

Fall comes early, when it wasn’t supposed to come at all 

Slowly, trees all around us begin to shed their leaves, each falling to the ground Being separated from all the others 

Suffocation comes when the boot of one’s foot steps on them 

Our tree didn’t think we would begin to shed our leaves 

But nature had a different plan in mind 

All at once, on one supposedly insignificant day, hundreds of leaves fall to the ground We fall, with no choice but to seclude ourselves from all the other leaves When we reach the ground, the tree seemed so far up 

Impossible to re-join 

All of us suffering in silence wait be crushed next to chewed up gum 

And dirt stuck in the ridges of one’s sole 

The stranger’s shoe whisks us away, leading us to a new beginning 

Still severed, but with a new existence