My fiddle leaf ficus lost a leaf a couple of months ago…

accidentally dislodged from it’s vibrant place on a limb

when the young man delivering the morning paper

aimed a little high I guess and brought it down.

I found it lying alongside the Los Angeles Times

when I went out to get the paper in the morning.

I picked up the leaf and held it for a minute

thinking how green and very much alive it seemed.

I set it aside in a place beside still living plants

not wanting to cast it onto one of the little pyramids

of raked leaves that fall naturally in autumn.

An unnatural death of anything deserves notice.