Cold pine floors
Greet her tears and steps.
Knees already worn -
Artie Shaw's Nightmare.

A lone leaf holds out
Green and whipped by the storm.

You sip your coffee and watch
Her fall away.

You deserve another minute
For laughter
More time for giggles
Another hug, bed time stories,
Silly tickles
Dancing in the window frame
Through thunder storms and turning rain
Quick outside a blue jay sang

Your ballerina toe tip your tiny
foot slipped
Into a final pirouette
Hair brushed warm and bathtub wet

Across the room your waiting bed
Is restless for your dreaming head
As the blue jay cries and flies from there
One more sunrise cries your silent stare

Floating above the fallen colors
Your fragrance mixes with the
Sweet decay of discarded leaves -
Forgotten.
An aroma blending perfectly
You are a blooming flower
Standing tall
Despite your desperate hours -
A honest friend.
For daylight slides off you
Warming my eyes away from fall -
Natures mascara.
Moonlight glows from within
Calling for an end to autumn.
Not many are allowed this close
As you have come and I feel vulnerable
because you can read my weaknesses
Which are scattered about like
Crumpled paper on the floor -
Discarded lines of bad poetry.
I want to forget them
If I could just change some
Lines.

Picture me
      Raking leaves
Through the backyard window.
               Sleep sweet dreamer
And allow warm minded glimpses -
Heavy eyed fences.
         Behind me calls a friend and
I turn away.
         Out of sight you
Hear of weather, politics, and preparations
                            For a storm.
You called whisper-voiced
Tall
Dimple eyed beauty asleep
In my arms by the backyard  
Window we fall warm coated
And small.

The bride and groom are positioned in the hall.
A father locks hands with the daughter
And remembers her birth.
Outside a jet streaks
Across the cloudless sky -
Leaving contrails.

This wedding gown weighted down
Like a train positioned
On a track;
Allows for easy movement in one direction -
Forward not back.

Toasts, familiar laughter, conversations
And the din of dessert forks searching
For the next bite will echo a lifetime
Like moments that flash
Into snapshots of memory.

Father, daughter, mother
Embrace on the landing in a moment
Of celebration and breath a sigh.
The conductor calls and checks his watch
As time will have his way.

I walked into your house.
The still air, silence,
And dust in the sunlight
Reminds me of the room
A grieving mother refuses to clean.
It's easy to see you
Didn't plan on dying.
Your grocery list waits on the counter
Amid your notes and written reminders.
You placed plates and cups in the sink
To wash later.
And the stacks of books you planned
To read cover the floor
Near a broom leaning against
The kitchen table.