Between the Lions
South Fayette Middle School Newspaper
June 2019
A Leaf’s Life
by Sia Matreja
Leaf exclaims,
Spring has come
The golden orb in the sky radiates
It is time to thrive
Be born into the light!
Leaf explains,
A caterpillar crawls
All over my rich skin
And weighs me down
Like an elephant on a nickel.
Leaf announces,
Now heat has hit my body
The summer sun shining on me
My beguiling skin is a bright light
Still flourishing and a vibrant, dark green.
Leaf worries,
My stem has become inordinately weaker
As I cling on to my coarse branch
I know a danger looms over me
For my color begins to fade.
Leaf bawls,
A chill runs down my spine
The heat slowly leaving
And my prodigious color gradually changing
All around me my brethren falling!
Leaf sobs,
My vivid green skin now a dark red
Blowing in the frigid wind
Away from my family
Unsure of what little time I have left.
Leaf wails,
I have landed far from my home
On the foreign ground I lay still
Now the brisk wind hits me
Like a cold knife slicing my soul.
Leaf longs,
In this unfamiliar territory I lay
As I no longer smell the scent of freshly cut grass
And sweet, pine sheddings around me
Now I just feel the frozen ground I lay upon
Leaf complains,
The sweet sound of birds chirping now gone
And the loud rustling of the evergreen bushes
Now listening to the wind whirling around me
Amongst the ever so tall trees
Leaf wonders,
What are those small, white, delicate flakes
That adroitly whirl around me
And gently melt
As they gingerly touch the ground?
Leaf cries,
The dancing, icy flakes now stab my heart
No longer melt but rest upon me
And together crush my tender soul
And viciously bury me beneath.
Leaf whimpers,
My leaves now crumble
My stem a dark brown
Darkness covers me
Goodbye.
Tree weeps,
Goodbye my fallen soldier
Farewell my kin
Until next Spring
I will see you again.
Winter declares,
My time has come
Now I must go
And make way
For beauty to grow.
Leaf screams,
Spring has come
The golden orb in the sky radiates
It is time to thrive
Be born into the light!
