I recognize you like the first fallen leaf signaling autumn. I know you looked like someone for the future, but the present stopped me from whispering wishes onto dead trees. And the orange cardigan that's giving me warmth stayed inside the closet. I hoped for spring in fall but September disapproved.

Dead leaves covering pavements the same way they cover graves. And my feelings are flickering like candle in birthday cakes but not in celebration.
You never look for me. You never look at me. And it's fine now because I have learned to appreciate comings and goings. But you, you came but never stayed.

Love approved of the next chapter and I finally looked forward, straight ahead, after looking at the sidelines for a long time. I saw love and was surprised that love was already looking at me.

I opened my box,
Turned the ****,
Hand and feet on position
And danced to the music.

Sometimes, the music is joyous.
Sometimes, it is melancholic.

I am waiting for the day
When I don't have to turn the ****
To hear music.

And I am waiting for the day
I finally outgrow my enclosure.

When my soul is on its knees,
I hold my hands together
And call to the divine.
And then I write eloquently of the past
And of the sacred future.

It will come soon.
When joy is etched on my skin
And death will tremble when I laugh
Because the devil cannot tease me anything anymore
For I would want nothing from him.

I saw someone fall in love again.
Said his heart danced
to a different beats-per-minute than before.
It smelled of pressed jasmine and maturity
compared to cotton candy kisses and butterfly wings.

I asked why does he keep comparing?

He said
The first love's immaturity is a gate
To the next one's finesse.

Temptation is a beautiful white bird in the forest
Leading to a house made of
Gingerbread and candy canes.

It shouts, "Witch inside!"
But you wouldn't know
Unless you learn to say no
To every eye-catching offer of the evil.