Leaves

He was cleaning leaves for one at a time

was what he needed and a minute before the two

brown poodles walked by he looked at the stripped-down trees

from one more point of view and thought they were

part of a system in which the dappled was foreign

for he had arrived at his own conclusion and that was

for him a relief even if he was separated,

even if  his hands were frozen,

even if the wind knocked him down,

even if his cat went into her helpless mode

inside the green and sheltering Japanese yew tree.