In the surprise box

I take it out of the surprise box and hold it up. It is the color of the the sunset as the colors change from oranges and yellow to deep red. It looks fragile and delicate and in time it will be dry and brittle, but right now it it supple and flexible with a touch of the useful life it so recently led. It’s surface texture reminds me of a fine leather, thin and fragile but supple and cured.
Right now it is silent but not so long ago with all of its brothers and sisters it would rustle with  the wind making sounds that are so distinctive of autumn.
Lifting it to my nose I sniff it. alone it smells stale, damp. and of fresh soil. The slight musty smell of soil and decay clings to it one that in the pile that it will be consigned to will multiply and become the smell of moldering vegetation that is so comforting in autumn.
Although it is beautiful I will not taste it. But I can imagine it would taste of soil and wood.
It reminds me that the end of summer has come and that my favorite season is here no matter how cold and early it is. Soon the spooks will be out. This draws a sense of excitement and anticipation in me.

Looking carefully I decide that the wind that is is the true place for this red leaf and I release it into the wind. Dipping twisting a floating through the air it flies away.