Rapids

(Triptych by Mark Rothko, 1903-1970, American painter)

Through the leaves — a glimpse of eternity.

RAPIDS

Fall’s leaves are redder than
spring’s flowers, have no pollen,
and also sometimes fly, as the wind
schools them out or down in shoals
or droves: though I
have not been here long, I can
look up at the sky at night and tell
how things are likely to go for
the next hundred million years:
the universe will probably not find
a way to vanish nor I
in all that time reappear.

~ A. R. Ammons (1926-2001), American poet