The dead leaf, an anguished yellow
Floats with the tide to a future unknown.
The veins are visibly tired and beaten,
The giant river's currents overbearing.

There it is, bobbing from below the water
At death's door, one last gasp at life.
A horde of other such dead leaves follows
All dead, all being rushed to a watery grave.

Till one day, the sun shone brightly
And washed ashore the bank it was.
At the foot of a giant green tree,
The leaf now lay for one last tryst.

One last tryst with life, with joy
One last dance between life and death.
One last night, perhaps, of revelry
One last moment of love, of companionship.

The crowd, so powerful and boisterous
They shouted for him to match their steps.
They wanted him to join the revelry,
To adopt their emblem as his.

At first he resisted, but they were many
He was dragged, disrobed and gowned.
With blood his previous self was washed
There he was, finally, one of them.