Her Leaf Pile

We are coming to you from the archives today! Here is a poem that we published in the October/November 2012 issue of Stance, our magazine. You can read more of the magazine here.

Orange, yellow, brown, and red
Fall upon her little head.
Speckles in her windblown hair
Rosy cheeks kissed by autumn air
Crispy crumbles
cascading
down
Crashing to colorful crunches
Piled on the ground.
Gathering the autumn leaves
Another handful she heaves
Higher and higher her prized heap grows,
Higher and higher under her toes.
Up the ladder and onto the slide
Sitting swiftly on her backside
Brighter and brighter her smile glows;
Tighter and tighter
her green eyes
squeeze
closed
– –
w h o o s h i n g
Down the shiny slide,
Riding through the air
She glides.
Into the pile she collides
Tumbles of laughter
Tumbles of leaves
Crunching crisply underneath
The light touch of her bare feet
She stops to smile
I fall to my knees
Not much I can give her
But You gave her the leaves

by Lanae Carmichael