Autumn Leaves

Autumn Leaves A children’s chorus opens with “Get Your Kicks On Route 66” bringing some to smile or lip lyrics. Others, who are closer to the intersection, Are long since past the range of reception. A woman is shuffling among us, shoeless, Muttering. Any twitch is invitation to press Further her ever more desperate pry: “Have you ever been to Lamoni?” How like a box of keepsakes whose key Has gone missing is a lifetime of memory Without recall; to live in the moment solely, If not for an inner solace, would bear lonely. Stares introvert now to the folds of inner space, The mind’s eye probing for the soul’s place, As the remembered world slips from reach And the ebbing tide completes its breach. The psyche again complete in its simplicity Is unshielded from a voice of ethereal authority, Beckoning, as from a cave beneath a waterfall, “Come, there is life beyond this veil and pall.” Copyright Paul Thomson 2018