SUDDENLY trees are turning bright autumnal colours. Leaves are tumbling. In these brief, atmospheric, lines by Gerry Cambridge, the leaves themselves do the talking. Gerry Cambridge is editor of the Scottish-American literary magazine, The Dark Horse, and a designer as well as poet. This piece comes from his 1999 volume, ‘Nothing But Heather!’: Scottish Nature in Poems, Photographs and Prose (Luath Press).

FALLEN MAPLE LEAVES

Like jigsaw pieces to an unfound puzzle,

drawn up from where we lie now we were each

a bud that swayed on the blue and white,

then made all summer a submarine shade

with our rustling high society. Now we

are colours of blood and butter and bronze,

wind-shaken down from our lofty tree,

and not to be shamed by our last flamboyance

before we re-enter mud’s democracy.