The Memory Endeavors to Bear Its Own Weight

A leaf falls into the shadow of a tree
by the side of a road. All the little things

we leave behind, past. Shadows
of leaves shaking in wind, shadow of a tree.

 ***

Hour after hour I stood there, shaking
hands, tried to listen. Flowers everywhere

daisies, lilies. I can recall only stillness,
the stillness of his face, his hands folded.

 ***

Every drop of rain falls by itself
and still we speak of storms

as seasons meander and never come
into anything other than themselves.

 ***

A photographer, in his entire life,
hardly gets more than twenty minutes

on film—fractions of fractions of seconds
at a time. What falls between shots:

 ***

lost, the light between shadows
of untold leaves we see as a tree.