Leap year is a collection of poetry written in 2023 and 2024. These poems were influenced by several other published works, post-pandemic reflections and honest observations encouraged by age and gratitude. These works include topics of flight, fear, frustration, fealty, and freedom, encouraging the reader to leap aboard this open railcar and share the experience of the journey. This collection includes observations of the natural and personal worlds, poems of frustration and loss-including a number of odes to dear friends and valued friendships as they begin their necrotic march toward ending. A charmed life also is one of gratitude, and many of these musings reflect upon the beauty of loved ones, the value of cherished moments and those magical humans that urge us to become better.