Embers of Summer

Unrelenting is the rain that
Drenches the earth
Where you once stood
So I stand in your footprints
Soaked through
From crying.

Through time I see you smile at me
But it is only a memory and I
Am watching from a distance.
Only in my dreams do you put your arms around me.

For the leaves are falling
Like golden and red flames
crunchy underfoot.
I kick them
The embers of summer.
And I cannot understand.

I must breathe the morning air
Before the world awakes,
The time you loved most.
And I see the early morning sky
The same, but ever changing.

The cold autumn sun
That shone on you once
as you lifted your face towards it
now shines on me.
The same sun.
But different because it does not shine on you.