The last autumn leaf sways from a maple.
Lazy sun rays filter through its speckled coat.
Beams of light focus on the slippery terrain below,
vivid oranges sloping and fading into brown, to the earth.
They say
the one who follows the crowd will get no further
than the crowd.
But it’s easy to stay with the crowd.
It takes courage to stand alone.
When all of a sudden it lets go
like a kite without restraint.
For now it is free.
It will not join the ones before, below,
but voyage far, far from home.
Dunedin Secondary School Poetry Competition