In a wild twirl
The last leaves of autumn dance
On the lacy grass
The hesitant ones are left
To the wind’s icy mercy

Link: twirling to wild twirl. This one was setting up for the next poem, but was so obvious my brother-in-law caught the reference before I posted the next poem in the sequence. Which was awesome because that’s HOW this kind of thing is supposed to work!

Within the tempest
I am a leaf on the wind
Just watch how I soar
In serenity I wait
For the inevitable

Link: icy mercy to within the tempest (eg: no mercy). The second and third lines are a paraphrase from the Firefly movie “Serenity” (hence the wordplay in line four).

For those unfamiliar:

Now get you heathens hence, and watch Firefly, one of the greatest sci-fi series ever made.