Don’t Rake the Leaves! Let them lie on your front lawn. They enrich the soil. Butterflies can lay their eggs on the crusty clusters outside your window just as birds feed and rest beneath the wind-rustled cover near the chipmunks and toads sheltering under the same roof in the woods all through the rigor of winter. And when it comes time for me to leave, I will enter as a plant does, growing roots into the earth of the forest and join the small, wide-eyed creatures as I nurture them.
Janet Krauss, who has two books of poetry published, Borrowed Scenery, Yuganta Press, and Through the Trees of Autumn, Spartina Press, has recently retired from teaching English at Fairfield University. Her mission is to help and guide Bridgeport’s young children through her teaching creative writing, leading book clubs and reading to and engaging a kindergarten class. As a poet, she co-directs the poetry program of the Black Rock Art Guild.
Amethyst Review 