at the boston public library: the busy world
(inspired by james joyce and listening to damien rice.)

i have spent the past hour
trying to describe the color of these leaves
in the tree diagonally across the street
from this window that i sit at
in the boston public library in copley sq.
i am supposed to be reading
nicomachean ethics
but i am not sure that i have ever seen
this color before.
yellow? not as harsh.
gold? not glittering, though.
maybe closer to university-sweatshirt-gold--
it seems like the leaves would be warm,
still a little green in places
almost orange in others.
now i am sure
i have seen this color before,
but i just can't place it.
not as dull as squash
not as muted as my faded old yellow t-shirt
which i used to be a bumblebee
last halloween.
(a man with a yellow jacket just walked past
and a green-yellow duck tour boat
just the color of the crayola crayon
turned the corner
unhelpful in contrast.)
i would have to say yellow, i guess
but its such an incomplete notion
and thus i think
that this is the most beautiful tree
that i have ever seen.
right there! on a city street corner!
forsithyas! my memory jumps in
recalling the song my sister
learned in preschool
but no, they are too yellow,
too spring.
i think this color is the color of autumn.
maybe i will leave it at that
and do my reading now.

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