I find that travel sharpens how we see. And what we see may or may not be what is there. But for me, this really happened.

On 5th Avenue, at the end of a New York week without much joy,
I walked behind a couple in their eighties.
He walked with difficulty, she rode her mobility scooter.
He, seeing a fallen leaf, slowly bent over
And picked it from the pavement.
She smiled and laughed as he placed the leaf in her hand.

And I saw, I saw
How sixty years ago on this very Avenue
A young man with the figure of a dancer
Had reached his left hand into the air
And brought back an autumn leaf for a beautiful woman.
Her dark eyes shone, and her lips parted
As he placed it in her hand.
‘Here’, he said, ‘this will bring us luck’.
And it did, it did.