Why do the autumn leaves fall?

Do they not possess ample strength to clutch the barked, branched, barrage of the tree stem?

because they were once mighty

they would cling for dear life onto their host

abrasive like a parasite, amiable like a spouse
but always wary of the foreshadow cast at the end of every celestially clear season

Maybe the leaves fall out of fear

their tender nature shatters their wills and belittles their beings into a compulsion of cascading down the gravitational gradient

Or perhaps they plunge out of pride

conscious of their arrogance and sizing themselves to scale, the liberated leaves seek out adulthood without their parental partners

as a right of passage, the seedlings sprout and leave the nest to encounter the perilous landscape in self sufficient solitude

This must bring excitement to the flailing foliage

it impulses them to relinquish restraint by excising their grips and be swept away

At last the leaves can ride the windy streams

carried effortlessly by nature’s broom they are free

but they are also at the mercy of the wind

Always peculiarly unpredictable
and a derogatory dictator