STARTLED INTO WAKEFULNESS

As with too much of anything

        uniqueness went its way

                leaving my appreciation gone.

It is, alas, the way of things

        when bounty overflows

                and the eye grows weary even of delight.

Perhaps I walked...too long

        among the brilliant leaves

                and orange lost the tempting of my eye.

I'd turned to watching clouds

        as surcease from piled gold

                and yellows in abundance far too great,

When my upward glance

        hooked upon a single leaf

                dangling orangely with its still-treed mates.

It was damaged, torn,

        its centered hole a portal

                for the setting sun,

And my tired eye

        was startled into wakefulness

                by its framing of the glowing light.

And so it is for us

        as we walk our journey's path

                and grow accustomed to the gifts we see...

It takes a sudden burst of light

        to startle us once more

                and reignite the joy of early day.

Jo Anzalone  Nov. 2, 2006

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