I am under a rusting fountain smoldering Smoldering, mold, brownish residue That felt your casual heartbreak yesterday And last week And every year You used to climb the tree over there and look up into a stonewashed autumn sky When there were no more books to read You lost your first tooth in his neighbor All the trees you named after characters from an epic story That you left behind when you turned 12 Along with your hopes of success as a lone wolf or warrior
You called me into your thoughts just again this morning I wriggled inside the room trying to get you to notice me But your body was still and focused, no longer lacking
There was a timeout and a fear of rabid animals There were ideas about how to deal with terrorists on your home turf There was a dead snake in the woodpile There were tiny embroidered cherry blossoms in heaps of laundry for your dolls There were ugly apples falling onto the deck in September
I canβt help you anymore Despite my admiration for how youβve changed Drop the dead leaves back onto the undergrowth for someone else to pick up