That Leaf

THAT LEAF / Molly Peacock That leaf tries very hard to turn over in very little wind. It lifts a corner and settles on the ground exhausted, lifts itself half over but, as the wind shifts, falls face down eating mud. It hikes half up in an attitude of prayer, then gives up. Suddenly it turns fully over, sun illuminating its dry belly. The sum of all attempts is change, yet when change comes it's finally so easy the world becomes instantly rearranged, present from past estranged, the old energy spent in almost angry astonishment. AU the leaf sees is sky, apallingly wide, though it always was so—depleted, terrified by sudden perspective, the outside brought inside though it always was so. 114 · The Missouri Review ...