summer passes. all its hot-
cropped doubts and match-
struck storms leave
a vacuum where we used to sit
on high-backed stools

and sip on laughter. this is
why i fall in love
though it makes me sad, why
we kiss on street corners
and write poems

about poems. autumn
comes welcome and in-
between, filling the sky
with empty spaces
to tell a story

of matched rails
and sunlight-through-leaves.
today is a good day
for the beginning
of end-

ings, wet-burnt
and rising as they carry us
off in laughter and smoke,
leave us fearless, bare-
footed in rain.