Leaf in the Wind - Rick K. Reut

The piece is an excerpt from the author’s manuscript Around a Word, which is a collection of cyclic verse that presupposes a poem having no beginning or end and working in both rhyme and prose.

…the sun sets and the time

pauses in a pantomime

like an old black and white

photograph of the night

in the window. You dream

of snow that tastes like cream.

In the light of a moon-

shaped plate, a silver spoon

mixes sugar and salt

inside your restless soul.

Each time you lose control

over the steering wheel

of your life, you may feel

as helpless as a torn leaf

in the wind. For a brief

moment, your memory

lane turns into a free-

way of living without regret

or fear. Inside your head…

…the sun sets and the time pauses in a pantomime like an old black and white photograph of the night in the window. You dream of snow that tastes like cream. In the light of a moon-shaped plate, a silver spoon mixes sugar and salt inside your restless soul. Each time you lose control over the steering wheel of your life, you may feel as helpless as a torn leaf in the wind. For a brief moment, your memory lane turns into a freeway of living without regret or fear. Inside your head…

Originally published alongside three other poems from Around a Word in the 71st issue of Adelaide, November (online version) and December (print version) of 2024

The author was born in 1984, in the USSR. He studied philosophy at EHU in Minsk, Belarus, and literature at Saint Petersburg State University, Russia. For most of his life after graduation, he has worked as a translator and a tutor of English as a foreign language.

To see the entire Around a Word collection, follow the link:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1xQEeVO7WKSqhlWneciTAkhAIlPaDfwt1/view?usp=drive_link