Come Sit Beside Me

Come, sit beside me.

I’ll brush away the leaves of orange and gold that have collected on the bench, unused since the summer people went away.

We will sit and wonder.

Where are the green leaves that only weeks ago shaded this spot from the heat of summer sun?

Where did the red and orange and yellow and gold of autumn come from?

Where were they hiding when sun and sky and billowy cloud ruled the day and fireflies danced away the night?

And where do they go when the season turns brown, when the breeze becomes a wind and strips from now bare branches the last traces of fall’s treasure?

How soon will it be?

And why?

And where did the fireflies go?  I know we didn’t catch them all.

But put your arm around me while we sit and wonder.

I feel a chill.