kiwi A Carved Leaf

I walked slowly through the arched stone gateway into the ruined church garden. On the low wall overgrown with ivy, someone had dropped a heavy brass coin with milled edges. I nudged it forward onto a warm patch of York stone. It rolled and settled flat with a gentle clink. Beside it lay a freshly fallen London plane leaf, its veins thick and stiff. I pressed one rounded paw on the coin and rested my chin against the curled tip of the leaf. The cool, grooved metal met the crisp, dry stem beneath me, and the slow breeze through the arches hummed faintly against the stone.