Fall's end

Fall is soon done here. It was my first real fall (in California our evergreen trees don’t wilt). I thought fall was a series of browns and yellows. I had no idea the spectrum of bright pinks and reds the leaves could change. I had no idea leaves could dance. With each gust the colors and lights refract as they circle around one another.

The brightest tree in the city stood alone behind the methodone clinic; its bright florescent pink leaves so obvious against the pale grey cement walls and chain linked fence. Even on the gloomiest days it appeared to glow.

When I first noticed her, I told everyone. Many smiled politely and some did nothing. It didn’t matter. The happiness her beauty brought me diminished any slight embarrassment my perceivably naive observation merited.

But fall, as I said, is nearly over. And my tree has lost all her leaves.

Only the small feeble branches remain as a faint reminder of a gem that many didn’t bother to notice.

Maybe next year.