Autumn, Rock Creek Park

Out of so much flux--such stasis!

The foreground leaves floating
on their reflections think they've died
and gone to Heaven, and they're right.

The sky never knew its own depth
and stillness until it found itself
falling through the cavernous dark
beneath those floating leaves.

Distance never stepped back and wondered
at itself (a girl in her first filmy
prom gown) until all these fall colors
stood breathlessly still for it,
turning the horizon infinitely soft.

The world here finds itself and is,
for an instant, still with wonder
before the mirror, or perhaps

this stillness is our sense of the world's
desire to hold this moment, hover here
where it is so much itself,

like a red leaf
and its reflection
together into the sky
rising and falling
this way, that way...
forever.

Dean Blehert

Last Updated: October 6, 2002