Autumn Leaves

Leaves crackle under my canary wellies,

and I remember you and me lost

in the woods of central Michigan.

North, South, East, and West played hide and seek

beneath blankets of fallen leaves,

keeping us searching until sunset.

Summer had always been my first choice

until we fell lost in autumn.

Branches painted in crimson and gold

dripped like sweet nectar,

covering the ground in a thick layer of caramel

leaves that would dry into a crisp, amber brittle.

You’d spin me around in perfect circles

like the rings within those giant maples.

We were ageless,

lost in the frantic blur of color

and the thrill of being missing.

Now I long to be lost in fall, unaware

of time bleeding out of us.

My heart is an arboretum where nostalgia grows on trees

carved with our initials.

Crushed leaves scatter the floor like an impossible puzzle.

One that if able to be put together

would form an eternal childhood.

September 2016