Verse

The wind flung leaves into the sky with might gusting blowing.
And most of them fell back to earth, but one leaf kept on going.
When he was young and green he knew his trunk, his branch, his brothers,
And when they fell he thought that place must be like all the others.
But after he had soared aloft with wind and clouds and birds,
He recognized the world's huge scope, too big even for words.
He wanted to see more, and since this leaf was pretty smart,
He studied all the birds and learned their soaring gliding art.
But not without a price: the wind made his dry fringe break off,
"But I don't care!" he sang with joy, "for now I live aloft!"
He floated on and on, surveying land and lake and sea,
And when the wind would claim a shard, he'd croon, "But I am free!
And each time that the wind breaks off a little scrap of mine,
That little scrap will see yet more! They're my kids, and that's fine!
Plus, they'll have offspring too! My lineage is thus assured:
For generations hence we shall be earthbound leaves no more!"
Therefore it came to pass that as he wandered on and on,
He fractured more and more, until at last the leaf was gone.
And all the tiny bits to which the leaf had given birth
Have since crumbled to dust, but still have not returned to earth.
The leaf's proud legacy, for which he knew that he must die,
Is drifting on forevermore, throughout, one with the sky.
He could have simply fallen, there to fertilize his tree,
Instead he wafted up and on to see what he could see.
This was the leaf's great dream, which led him to self-sacrifice.
So now I ask you, gentle reader: was it worth its price?