I’m in love;
yes, in love.
If you were to ask, I’d tell you
it’s so.
I think I must
have fallen not long ago.
It began in September,
when she would arrive
and I would be
filled with awe and with wonder,
with the color she brings,
with the joy and the beauty
and the warmth of the sky.
She smiles,
I cry.
Not tears of anguish,
but tears from inside:
tears of unworthy affection.
As I said,
this began in September,
but October soon followed.
Too soon in fact;
too soon and too fast,
but nonetheless
I fell further in love
and deeper into
more of her presence;
more than I knew.
Trees turned color,
lost leaves.
Even the tamaracks,
though they seemed evergreens.
As the forests caught fire,
they burned without heat,
but the colors of flame
were warm.
And the greater their beauty,
the grander the world,
the more I loved her.
I tell you,
it’s true!
October passed,
November rolled in.
Still she possessed me.
My heart on fire;
My tired soul
burning,
as the forest.
But as all things,
so this love
was impermanent.
She grew too cold
and my soul did the same.
The trees lost their flame
as snow cooled them all
her beauty, now,
is frost and not fire.
The love that was there
is there no longer;
winter consumed her
entirely.