The man is tired. He’d hoped the crisp, autumnal air would freshen him up a bit, but he just feels like he wants to crawl back home to bed. But that’s not great for him either, home.
He sits by the river on a damp bench. Leaves fall from the amber canopy. He watches as two leaves float downstream like two little, yellow boats. One gets caught in an eddy and begins to swirl around and around. The other continues on the current.
He wonders, idly, if the leaf trapped in the eddy knows it is trapped. Or does it just sense movement and mistake it for progress? Did it notice the other leaf pulling away and wonder where it was going?
Watching that helpless leaf makes him sad, so he gets up and goes elsewhere, to think about the same old things.
Paddy Dobson
26th October 2022