This is an imitation in the style of Kenneth Koch.
Leaves
OCTOBER LEAVES
Only Ray Bradbury
Understands October leaves.
BIRD LEAVES
Two hundred black birds
Fly in a cyclone
Like burnt, organic leaves.
PRESSED LEAF
She doesn't know
It's crumbling inside her blank book
Because she doesn't check
And, she doesn't write.
LATENT LEAVES
Spring! The buds
Contain becoming leaves.
KIDS IN LEAVES
We realized hours later
That our raking had hidden
The red headed boy.
LEAVES IN KIDS
Happen when they're hungry.
TENATIOUS LEAF
Even with snowflakes
Tapping it
It says
“I shall not
Fall.”
LAST TREE LEAF
When its tenacity fails.
TEA LEAVES
Dumped like roach bits
Onto the ivory saucer--
My future, she says, is
Not going well.
LEAVES ON TABLES
Are not real leaves
But make me giggle
When they fold down
Accidentally.
X-RAYED LEAVES
I said your hand's veins
Were like x-rayed leaves.
You smiled like acid
And paid the bill.
LEAF FALL
Air that's still as
Aunt Mary's eyes
At the hospital before the nurse
Covered her.
My ears imagine
The stem snap.
It drops
Like a moon feather.
LEAF FALL (version 2)
Air that's still as
Aunt Mary's eyes
Before the nurse
Covers her.
Through her window
Her dog-loved maple.
My ears imagine
The leaf's stem snap.
It drops like a moon feather.
LEAF FALL (version 3, should be retitled)
Your eyes
still.
Your maple's leaves
still.
The sheet
still
After the nurse covers your face;
It should billow.
SHOWER
Illegal paper bits
From the buildings like trees
In a great, concrete and glass forest
Surround the shouting
That makes a glorious wind
I'm a hero!