Autumn is an expired favorite of the sad lovers, sitting apart with forearms stuck between forehead and tabletop. Tired souls shake off old skin with the shifting of the seasons and some call it a fresh start, but it only ever feels like wasting away. The desperate optimists grasp for beauty in changing colors, but every leaf falls with a tear, each a dreary reminder of all the once-lovely emblems that decorated the golden days. "Once upon a time" no longer evokes the sweet nostalgia of fairy tales, but carries the melancholy weight of better days fading from memory to myth.