A Leaf in the Wind

Where, luscious thing, does your yearning lead you?
Auburn glories mourn parting
From that tender mother sapling,
But there is no lament in your solemn flight.
Oh, how amber is winged!
You miss neither your emerald hue,
Nor your stately parent.

What does the wind adore
With greater fervor than its young tenant?
You, thin blade, are dearest to this gale.
It is your sweetness,
And you are its religion.
It carries you,
As virtue carries the soul.
An image is this aerial wandering,
Of every gorgeous rapture.

When you return to land
A golden vision,
Shorn of sire and brethren,
You will at last be sorrowed;
But you will grieve alone the wind.

Sakina Qazi is a senior at the University of Miami. Her poetry has appeared or is forthcoming in Nymphs Literary Journal, One Art: A Journal of Poetry, The Hyacinth Review, and more.