When Leaves Leave

Every crunch.
brings pleasure,
endless whispers of balmy days past
the sweat that glistened from our backs
as we sparkled like fire flies in the night,
ushered on by nothing but youth and a thirst for life
in the endless summer days.
we now reap what we sow as our hands curl into one another
to keep warm we say,
but it’s to hold onto the memories of a yesterday
when it was heady and easy
groggy and steamy…
i don’t want to forget—
but the chill in the air reminds me that like time,
the seasons are fleeting,
so i find the leaves that are shriveled and curled up,
the ones determined to hold on to the channel of life at sweet center
and i crush them.
a reminder to each other
that summer’s heat is at its end.