I threw away the leaf I picked up from the ground when I watched you walk in the opposite direction of me.

It was useless, after all.
The curve of its spine would not have been able to withstand the unpredictable transitions of my bedroom decor.

Similarly,
I can be sure that when you call me at 3am begging for the answers to the problems you pose to yourself that I will shuffle amongst my possessions and I will crush it, clumsily, and probably drunk.

So I had to throw away this leaf I found on the first real day of autumn when the wind played games with my hair and with my eyes making me feel as though I were falling into you instead of the reality I realized later- that I was never in motion at all.

Why I had kept it for so long is a mystery to me.
I knew better than to pick things off of the ground and fall in love with their intricate edges.
At least its gone now.