LIFE AS IT IS

I have never seen the splendor of autumn before. I haven’t known the festival that fall plans for the mankind– the autumnal celebration of colors is a beauty to behold. As the winter was approaching the trees were shedding leaves; they were metamorphosing from green giants to living skeletons of boughs and branches. Soon their twiggy bodies would be covered with snow. The branches that once exhibited shades of green, were now clad in a thousand shades of brown, red, orange and yellow. Leaves fell like rain when the wind blew; the ground under every deciduous tree was a bed of leaves. A crackling sound followed my footsteps when I walked on them. A pair of ducks swimming on the Mississippi was enjoying the cold afternoon – they poked each other and ducked their heads underwater playfully. As they glided in the cold water, dead leaves from maples and birches fell on the water in silence. A gush of wind separated more leaves from their branches, thrusting them farther away from the t