Pencil Leaf

Leaves drawn with plastic pencils
look like wallpaper.
Wood pencils lead the lead into the woods
where leaves become leaves.
 
One summer, she says she wants to do nothing
but draw the veins of leaves.
She doesn’t.
She irons red maple leaves between waxed paper.
 
Leaf ignores pencil.
Pencil calls leaf Mother.

Published in Turtle Island Quarterly