Ambiguity

People are few.

October leaves also fall,

Here, there, now and then.

~ Issa [Englished by Phillip Whidden]

The people come and go.  As symbols they

Lack wings unlike black Lucifer or God.

The people are far fewer in the day

Than leaves that flutter, wings all overawed

By orange, yellow, scarlet death.  Yet still

You get the point.  The few and many die.

One dies here, now.  Some others die and spill

Together yet alone.  We watch them fly

To death’s oblivion.  The people turn

Their eyes to blight and beauty.  Wilfully

They watch the burning, burningless leaves burn,

These leaves and people dying spillfully.

  Because the people are not dying now,

    They live and dwell upon a bright leaf bough.