---
title: Leaf
genre: prose

id: leaf
toc: "Leaf"

project:
    title: "Buildings out of air: Paul in the Woods"
    class: paul
    order: 3
    next:
    - title: Writing
      link: writing
    - title: Leg
      link: leg
    prev:
    - title: Axe
      link: axe
    - title: Joke
      link: joke
...

He shrugged the wood off his shoulder, letting it fall with a clog onto the earth floor of his Writing Shack.
He exhaled looking out of the window.
He hoped to see a bird fly by, maybe a blue jay or raven.
[No bird did][].
He inhaled.
He exhaled again in a way that could [only be classified][] as a sigh.
He sat down at his writing desk.
He began shuffling through what he'd written, trying to find some sort of pattern.

"*Each piece of paper---each leaf---*" at this he smiled---"*is like a tree in the forest.*"
He was writing as he thought aloud.
"*I, as the artist, as the **writer**, must select which to use, chop down those trees, bring them back to my shed and*---and---" he frowned as he realized the only end to this [metaphor was fire][].
He ran his fingers through his hair in a self-soothing gesture.

"I need to build some furniture" he thought.

[No bird did]: last-passenger.html
[only be classified]: last-bastion.html
[metaphor was fire]: the-night-we-met.html