#COLLAB: What happens next?

I wrote the poem on a whim, when I was feeling a bit insecure about myself – and my future. Like leaves, we go through different stages of life – I chose to see it as different stages of success. The falling from the tree signals the moving on to something new, the end of dependency…and sometimes that’s scary.

The last autumn leaf fell today;

With a thud –

A heaviness

The last autumn leaf fell today;

While the others he hung with

Died.

Crumpled, deceased,

away

The last autumn leaf fell today;

And while the others had moved on

He laid there –

Red – full of energy

And

Scared

Wondering about

“what happens next?”

Saadiqah Schroeder (2019)

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“The flower that blooms in adversity is the most rare and beautiful of all”

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Saadiqah is a BA student majoring in Linguistics and Afrikaans at UCT. She loves the outdoors, nature & animals, art and other thought provoking stimuli. She writes poetry and draws/paints as hobbies when she’s not studying.