I stood watching
leaves slowly descending
upon the cemetery.
An incongruous beauty
as death overlapped death.
Each headstone
calling to attention
“don’t you forget!”
But in time
they too
will return to the ground,
first slouching
then falling
asleep upon the earth.
Why such beauty
in death multiplied?
Because the leaves
alight with heaven’s fire
remind us that God works rhythmically.
What dies in beauty
soon comes forth in new life.
Jason Kanz 