A Romantic Epiphany on the Walk to Parkside

The night time street was still, no cars drove by. The boughs of trees were waving, stars were out. A single falling leaf then caught my eye, and held my gaze while floating high about. It drifted slowly through the midnight air. It neared the ground again and then again, picked always upwards by an errant breeze just before it landed on the street. It never stilled, and thus my mind ensnared. It seemed to give me one small smile and then–

The branches of the sturdy pine unfurled. The dark magnolia trees awakened too. Their rosy flower petals winked and twirled, as blooming buds made worldly grand debuts. The clouds began to fly and drift along. They then reached down to kiss the sleeping earth, which came alive with lazy pleasure next. The soil began to chatter, joined in song as all of nature sang and laughed in mirth, delighting while the city was at rest.

But the concrete pavement was encroaching on the boxed-in leaves and trees and flowers. Smog was hanging low and quick-approaching, suffocating, making nature cower.

Cold cement and fences, tall red brick walls, forced retreat of beauty without pity.

No escape did nature’s wildness offer

as it disappeared beneath the city’s

rigid lines and drunken frigid squalor,

throwing pleading Nature to her downfall.

So to the universe I made my plea

for some alternative escape for me.

My little leaf sure knew the way to light; it rose up in the air

and stayed there fixed

becoming one among the stars of night. I rose with it as if I were

bewitched

and landed in that cavernous expanse. The canopy of night

stretched far and wide, a ballroom for the stars and moon to

dance, encompassed by the arch-ed splendor of the cosmos,

or the Oceanus tide,

which circles blessed heaven from above.

Surrounded by celestial light, I turned and saw a winking star begin to wake, unfolding gently from her sleep to burn amidst the midnight sky for humans’ sake. She stood and twirled in luminescent glow and other stars joined in, full soft and slow, and so they danced and danced as if there were no care beside the joyful art they made. I joined before my pure delight could fade and time passed by me in one blissful blur.

The wistful colors of the night revealed themselves while I still danced in fantasies, now letting worries to my passion yield alongside stars and moons and galaxies. The constellations veiled themselves no more and whispered stories of their times long past, of ancient kings and queens and peace and war, then reenacted them before my eyes. I saw ethereal Lyra gleam at last, and played her til the sun began to rise.

That night I fully lived a thousand lives, brought on by one leaf dancing ’neath the skies.

826 Valencia is a nonprofit organization dedicated to supporting students from under-resourced communities in San Francisco with their writing skills.