PROMENADE OF FRESH AIR

holes like swiss cheese,

brown and beige lairs in the trees,

like bygone ornaments

relying on fragile boughs to

cradle feathered rudiments.

I didn't even notice them.

the leaves from last year.

dead and withered,

offering charity, warmth & anatomy.

“still here,” they say,

except,

they’re mute.

so I keep walking my best friend.

nothing we do this year

matters to the leaves from last year.

Suzy Ryan is a current student attending St. Charles Community College. Where she is majoring in Creative Writing and served as Assistant Editor of The Gateway Review: A Journal of Magic Realism. Her work has been read at Creative Writing Symposiums and Coffeehouses. She enjoys writing short stories, poetry, and flash fiction. She has a keen interest in turning her writing into screenplays.