green and gold and the magic of fall

I started walking today

without any words in my head,

just walking,

out the door,

up the sidewalk,

make a right

and down the street.

but when I made

that right turn

I saw something beautiful.

it was October,

leaves were starting

to change,

still lots of green

but the gold was growing.

down low,

the locust trees

were almost all gold.

up high—

and here comes the beautiful thing—

the tulip poplars were still very green.

high above

the neighborhood rooftops,

my eyes found

one big and very unique

poplar tree.

its great bulbous canopy

was nearly all green

except for a pocket

of golden leaves,

near the center of the tree.

the golden patch

stood out exquisitely

in the true and even light

of a rainy afternoon.

I saw this poplar

tree and now the words

were springing up

in my mind.

but Marley didn’t

want to just stand there.

his dog-eyed

view of the world

was taking him forward.

he had lots of smelling to do,

lots of p-mail to check.

“okay Marley,” I said.

as we walked on.

then,

maybe fifteen minutes later,

we came to the turn-around moment,

one of the happiest

parts of the walk.

once we turn around,

I am no longer walking away.

now, I am walking back,

back to the pages that

are waiting to be filled

in my writing room.

I walked a little faster

on the way back.

now, not only did I have the

writing to look forward to,

but I had this poplar tree

with the golden patch in the center.

and I was singing the song

in my head as I walked along:

“I’ve been to Hollywood.

I’ve been to Redwood.”

then we came to the place

where I saw the poplar

tree for the first time.

I looked above the rooftops.

there it was,

with leaves undulating gently

to the subtle action of the air,

a quivering image

made from trillions

and trillions

and trillions of cells.

the tree had a confident stance,

tall, straight, with leafy chest

puffed out proudly,

and in the center

a huge

ten-foot

heart of gold.