Leaves

Kaii Higashiyama

Leaves

The winds that blow -

  ask them, which leaf of the tree

   will be next to go?

Soseki

Yesterday I was driving down a mapled street as a gust of wind kicked up. Suddenly I was in a storm of swirling, flaming leaves. They struck at the windshield from all directions, skidded across the road in front of me, made little leaf-cyclones along the avenue. It gave me the sense of an event, as if on my way home I had come upon a street festival or a riot, people laughing and crowding, pushing me along, jostling me in their enthusiasm. When the wind died down, it was as if something had happened to me. I was unsettled, elated. Coming around the corner I had caught a glimpse of a drama unfolding; as if I were a character walking into a scene of a story I had not known I was part of.