just a leaf

.

she felt a whisper in her hair
long black and straight
she didn’t need to read the words
still much too familiar
and she knew it belonged to her

she turned
but he wasn’t there…
just a leaf afloat in the air

she sat in her chair
ordinarily
where they used to meet
she and he
they…
and the drawers to her back
she’s counted them once
two hundred ten
give or take ten
or maybe seventeen

sat atop two hundred ten drawers
were the piles of words
and stacks of colors
with eight hundred
twenty nine
secrets
kept tucked in the drawers below
and always to her back

she cupped her heart
to catch the leaf
but it drew a loop instead
in the air of jade and daiquiri ice
where still lingered the scent
still much too familiar
but only to her memories

the leaf lofted before it settled
on the piles of words
and beside the colors
now missing from their home

missing?
i never lied, she thought

now sat there the leaf instead
whispering alpine winter
and maple autumn

there’s a space
that grew behind the drawers
but before the wall

she liked that wall
quite alabaster with a hint of prussian
it kept her from winter
from the wind
and from the salty waves
that brought the words
broken and empty
and swallowed her once

now there’s winter in her room
and the leaf that came with the wind

the lost words and missing colors
sat there at the bottom of the space
and the space had no bottom

she pushed the drawers
tight against the wall
and sat in her chair
ordinarily

the leaf sat atop
two hundred ten drawers
give or take ten
or maybe seventeen

.

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Tags:

colors, lost, love, missing, poem and words