ALMOST A YEAR SINCE MY MOTHER DIED some restless leaves fill the air with their shifting traffic I look for a sorrow I think I must have misplaced so necessary does it seem to follow on certain losses someone somewhere is having a hurricane here the leaves let loose of their twigs and stirred by the wind come to earth gently like birds landing offshore the hurricane stirs the deep for monsters but we have only this next layer of leaves washing down to feed the soil a natural thing like the progression: "I have parents" "I have a mother" "I..."