Falling leaves

Falling leaves slip silently through the autumn air from their autumn glories,
And in that graveyard which I passed they'll lie and fade, as do memories of the dead.
On tombs and headstones names are carved which now are long forgotten;
"John" and "Jacob, "May" and Mary" who died so long ago.
Above the graves where lie their bones and who and what they were,
fallen leaves cover the ground -
gay today and stirred by breezes but not for very long -
Saddened by the winter rains, then they'll be a mourning cloak for those no longer mourned