the man in the clouds
made the world go quiet
when too many people
forgot he was there
the man in the ground
lured people in to join him
when too few people
remembered his name
the woman in the sun
lived in the dark
because no one knew
where she went after
the man in the clouds
and the man in the ground
stopped repeating her name

The words that left his mouth were only a quarter true
They fell from his lips with the weight of one thousand I Love Yous
And sounded like crying when they hit the floor

bad coffee on the fourth floor
the sun fell through the wooded ground
her words became lost in the notes she heard when she thought of him
a method of falsetto used by the ink in her pen
a song made out of the pain she saw lingering in the mirror
she played it on repeat loud enough so others couldn't hear how much it hurt when she realized she missed him

little by little
i stopped loving you like the wind
as it grew colder
the seasons blended together
until all of them felt the same
and i couldn't tell them apart
an indistinguishable pile of crisp leaves in the summertime
snow flakes in the spring
love in the evening
and hurt by the fire

written in the nighttime
read in the daylight
seen by no one less than you
i found myself in fall
and with it
the strength to admit i loved you
let go of the early mornings
say goodbye to the late nights
i leave these words in a box in the sand
and with the wind