Winter lingers like a petulant schoolchild:
Clouds jostle for position, darkening with rain.
A sudden chilled wind rushes from the storm’s
Leading edge, stirring birds to flight.

Natural drains roar with the shower-fed torrent.
Trickling streams become dark-mirrored cascades.
Wind-blown branches whip sharply, some toppling
Under the relentless beating.

A fleeting slice of sunlight rolls across the distant hills.
The first stirrings of wildlife crash through the thickets.
Robins race for food.  Songbirds raise tentative voices.
The charged air is filled with the smell of wet
Foliage.

The rains would soon resume.  His usual crossing
point had already vanished.  He settled back in his
Lean-to shelter, finished his meal, and pondered the
Approaching darkness.

A cold thrilling sensation
Rushed up his spine.
His eyes focused,
Finally, on the photographs.

In the golden light, with wisps of
breeze fluttering the curtains,
he sat riveted, unblinking,
devastated.  The pictures
didn’t lie.

Thoughts of her passion-filled gaze,
her unremitting progressive politics,
her peculiar sense of humor, and
how she glowed after a shower.

How she was quick to flirt, but stayed
close at parties.  How she laughed
knowingly when she had had one too many.
How she had taken over his heart, with him
All too eager to please her.

It was gone now.  All of it.  No more
catches of her laughter from the kitchen,
no more discussions into the night about
the fate of the country.  No more of her
alluring, enchanting love.  

Just **** – and a lesson finally learned.