missing the real thing

Yep. That is what I am hearing, I say to myself. No broom is gently cleaning the window’s screen. No water is running through the water heater. It is the leaves. The leaves are rustling, wafting that scent, the clean one that opens rooms and forces blood through the body. It is more than alarming. To notice it, to feel it in the ears causes such deep emotion, pure elation in that there is something happening to something apart from myself and it is lively, renewing, volatile. Sitting on the couch, reviewing some work, my head turned sharply because I thought I heard something. I look back down and realized I nearly missed it. As if I had been wrong, I assured myself that there was nothing there. But there was! There was something there just not something present enough to cause physical fear or alarm. It was just the leaves, I thought to myself. Just the leaves! Who am I? Close your eyes, woman, and take your mind off these trivial words. All they have taught you is to forget what life is.