Autumn sweater

A poem to read on this cold day:

I picked up a leaf
today from the sidewalk.
This seemed childish.

Leaf! you are so big!
How can you change your
color, then just fall!

As if there were no
such thing as integrity!

You are too relaxed
to answer me. I am too
frightened to insist.

Leaf! don't be neurotic
like the small chameleon.

(thanks, Frank O'Hara)