This quivering tree is starting to change color in the parking lot near a fresh sushi
place by our high school and while my daughter went next door
to buy a few things from the store for Homecoming,
I sat in my car with the windows down with the sun filtering through,
while I admired the barely perceptible orange and red-tinged leaves,
and I thought about how
I always want to get an oak tree or a maple tree
in my front yard so in October I could see my house from
down the street
while I was driving up the street,
just like 18 years ago when I was exactly
36 weeks pregnant with my twins,
our front yard tree looked ablaze with red
on October 1st and they were born 3 days later in their own blazing arrival
(and it must have been quite a spectacular autumn that year in 2006),
but we no longer live there,
and it’s been years since I drove past our first home.
As my daughter shopped for several minutes,
I watched a little magpie bird
bounce among limbs —
more of a floating than flying —
as she chirp-chirped at a woman getting too close to her nest,
as the tree fluttered in the golden light,
and I knew by watching her carefully,
as soon as the sun shifted
and the wind changed direction,
that little magpie would fly.
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