Tree, casting

  ..
  The way they quiver
  At the slightest breath of wind,
  The way they thrill,
  And shudder almost individually,
  One of them beginning to shake
  While the others are still quiet,
  Unaccountably, unreasonably -
                          

What am I saying?
One leaf in a million more fearful,
More happy,
Than all the others?

On this oak tree casting
Such deep shade,
And my lids closing sleepily
With that one leaf twittering
Now darkly, now luminously.                            

                                            

Charles Simic

Leaves

  [fragment]

New and Selected Poems

  1962-2012

op. cit.

ii Photo Valéry Lorenzo