Lovely Leaf from the Sky Walking to my apartment from the mailbox, I heard footsteps at my heels. Quickening my pace, a lovely leaf fell at my feet. "Beautiful!" she said rushing to the laundry room, "the wind brought you a gift." I thought this leaf would have been hers had I not walked faster ahead. Circling my courtyard for trees and bushes where this leaf had come from, I came up empty. Couldn't locate this leaf in books of trees & plants. I showed it to a friend who took me on many hikes, she said— "Nice, symmetric, but it's plastic!" What a fool I am!— the word echoed from The Graduate movie and a Zen lecture on "Plastic Flowers".   — Peter Y. Chou       Mountain View, 5-24-2016