the LadY BuG's pLiGhT

Everyday I sit upon this leafy pillow top.
Tho very green—it’s holey;
I can tell it wants to drop.
“Don’t sag, dear leaf. Don’t drag,” I say
But still it dwindles on.
Perhaps it needs a little tune,
This leaf I sit upon.

I hurried to the locust clan,
To urge them with this plea:
“You see,” I said, “it’s really sad,
if you’ll just come with me
I know that you could perk it up
With your sweet symphony.

They hopped and hummed and honed their tunes,
Struck up their bow-strung legs
And thus began to orchestrate
The finest of their plays.
The sweet sincerity of their song
Swallowed the sulky leaf above
They played a song of sun and fun
Of laughing and of love.

The leaf began to nod a bit
In peaceful reverie
But when the song came to an end
It sank in its roots by the tree.

“But no,” I thought, “this cannot be!”
Why has it not aroused?
It always worked for me,” And then,
“A-ha!!” I cried aloud. “
When music doesn’t do the trick
And happiness endure
Poems, sonnets, and prose, it seems,
Have always been the cure!”

I flew into the long tall grass
To find my dear friend Chimes
He’s never failed to cheer a soul
With poetry and rhymes.
“Chimes! Old Chap! How have you been?”
Tis sad it’s been so long,
It seems there’s been a small mishap
To a leaf out by the pond.”

He decided he should come along
To see what he could do
He’d want someone to do the same
If he were in a stew.
He looked upon the listless leaf
With grasshop-buggy eyes
Struck his fiddle bright and long to
Pull the leaf from its demise.

He recited William Shakespeare
“to thine own self be true”
Ralph Waldo, Robert Lowell
And Greek mythology too!
And then he made his own piece,
Spoke of light and life and dreams
The beauty of the earth and sky
And trees and bugs and streams.

But still the leaf sat sagging on
Heavy in its woe,
While Chimes and I sat sadly
On the rotting forest floor.

The praying mantis prayed for it
(then beheaded her new prey)
The earthworms tried to grovel…but
They do that anyway.
The sun and moon and stars and rain
Couldn't lift its waning head
We all began to wonder if
It would perish in its dread.

And then one day when spring was near,
The rainy season thru
A little sprig began to spring
Green life and hope anew.
The drooping leaf was in a daze,
The blossom at its side.
It never had before seen such
A Beauty, and it cried.

It seems the leaf was lonely,
In a stupor for its kind
He needed someone else to share
Life’s laugh with, and his mind.

My plight had now come to an end,
I couldn’t seem to solve
What nature knew that leaf would need
A new life-bringing love.