When Autumn Speaks

When leaves drop heavy as unsent Letters upon the dampened earth, I taste the copper in cold air— Your warmth dissolved in autumn's dearth. October fog wraps ash-grey threads Around the words we left for dead, Each syllable a weighted stone That settles in my chest alone. But winds grow cold where shadows climb, Where promises dissolve in time, And hours spill like wine uncorked— Each stain a prayer the floor has worked. Yet dawn still stirs its fragile breath, A cardinal calls through winter's death, Its cry sharp as the love we bore— I gather fragments from the floor. One amber morning, still and bright, I'll let these pieces take their flight— Not loss, but gift: how love can grow Like roots that bloom beneath the snow.