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THREE LEAVES




I noticed it this morning.

One maple tree. Completely green except for three leaves near the top that had turned orange and red.

Three.

Apparently fall has sent an advance team.

That tree will look completely different in a few weeks. Then different again a few weeks after that.

For now, though, it is almost entirely summer with just the smallest hint of what is coming.

The beginning.

When one tree quietly gives away the secret.

Three leaves changing while everything around them is still holding on.

I stood there looking at them for an unreasonable amount of time.

This is apparently who I am now.

A man emotionally affected by three leaves.

But there they were.

And somehow, they were enough.

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