Alberto Ríos: "A Yellow Leaf"

 
A yellow leaf in the branches
Of a shamel ash
In the front yard;
I see it, a yellow leaf
Among so many.
Nothing distinguishes it,
Nothing striking, striped, stripped,
Strident, nothing
More than its yellow
On this day,
Which is enough, which makes me
Think of it later in the day,
Remember it in conversation
With a friend,
Though I do not mention it—
A yellow leaf on a shamel ash
On a clear day
In an Arizona winter,
A January like so many.

"A Yellow Leaf" by Alberto Ríos, from The Smallest Muscle in the Human Body (Copper Canyon Press, 2002). Text as published on American Life in Poetry.

Art credit: Unable to locate an image I liked of a yellow shamel ash leaf, I decided to use this untitled green ash leaf by an unknown photographer. The two varieties of leaves are very similar in appearance. 

Alberto Ríos: "Who Has Need, I Stand with You"

In this hour, let us grant to each other the grace that is ours to give.
In each other, let us see ourselves, and ourselves again,

That all the times we have looked at our faces in a mirror
Should have added up—each face our own, but a reminder as well

We are more than ourselves, that our eyes can see
Into that silver world as far as, and beyond, what we understand.

Looking into a mirror, into a window pane, into the water of a lake,
A photograph—we are here and over there as well. In that moment

All things are more possible. In this hour of ourselves, you and I,
One stronger than the other, let us speak evenly, and make plain

The hope that all this time has held us. Let us extend ourselves
Beyond ourselves into the silver, ourselves bigger and farther,

Ten thousand bodies to choose from suddenly in that mirror, us
Needing only one, so that things seem again so simple.

"Who Has Need, I Stand with You" by Alberto Ríos. Published online by Orion Magazine, May/June 2010. © Alberto Ríos.

Photography credit: "Train Ride," by Larry Kolvoord, Austin American-Statesman, taken January 18, 2011 (originally color).