Long before daybreak
 
the first bright notes of birdsong
 
stir the maple leaves.

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on a wooden bridge
 
in the Japanese garden:
 
one dry maple leaf

 
 
 

From the topmost branch
 
of my neighbor’s maple tree
 
a crow jeers at me.

Leaves

 
 
 

Throughout the long night
 
my neighbor’s crimson maple
 
drops leaves on my lawn.

Loss

 
 
 

Deepening autumn—
 
the old Japanese maple
 
loses its last leaf.

Leaf

 
 
 

Little brown sparrow,
 
did you see the last red leaf
 
fall from the maple?

Tinged

 

First chill of autumn—

one leaf on the maple tree

is tinged with scarlet.