First leaf-fall

Leaves like the thoughts of man, you
With your fresh thoughts care for, can you?
Ah when the heart grows older
It will come to such things colder
By and by, nor spare a sigh
Though worlds of wanwood leafmeal lie

And yet you will cry and know why..

Standing on a bridge I have walked over for half a century now, and the view is pretty much the same. I was 4 and now I am fifty years older.

And from then to now I have always loved the feeling of alternate reality you get when you can see reflections of the world in the water - and they seem just as real and solid as the leaves floating on top.

Here, the first leaves of a very late autumn..