Nothing could lure me inside,
away from the natural mosaic
of orange and yellow
and deep, rusty reds,
all mingled together in trees soft as pom-poms.

Nothing could keep me from playing
in the cool, fresh afternoon air,
freed from the classroom,
jumping into crinkly piles of
brown and tan hospitable leaves.

Nothing could distract me from watching
busy little squirrels, filling their cheeks
with gathered acorns,
scurrying up the sides of trees
and disappearing into eternity.

Nothing could prepare me then
for all the autumn I’d long for now
as I toil away in a windowless office
barely catching the beauty of
the setting sun at the end of the day.

If only then I could have somehow
savored more,
somehow known the carefreeness
wouldn’t last forever…

…ah, but then I would have missed it all
as I grasped and clawed and tried to capture
all that was wonderful
simply because of its evanescence.