If Autumn Is A Writing Prompt

Yesterday’s walk through autumn hills–
One maple, any color, is pretty.
Spectacular is hill after rolling hill
red, yellow, orange sprinkled with forest firs
above a still bright green field.
Halfway up, one tree is
deep maroon, nearly purple

We could paint this view, one of us says
But our schedules don’t match
I could do it alone, one of us says
But I won’t

Here, friends, a gift–
this could become a poem about
being better together, whether friends or trees,
or it might become an ode to maroon or maples
a singularity
or a rift on leaves and calendar pages
both shaken free, drifting on a caught breeze
It could turn into a poem
about words and leaves changing,
turning themselves and turning how we see
You decide–and let it be beautiful