Dancing in October air, I remember
watching you floating, defying gravity
holding a restless cavity of sold youth, and
sojourned souls Newton would have paid
to drop hoes, not apples, to your beat
and sing empty Hallelujahs to pass finite days,
I watched the velvet autumn wind
fold your hands and break them,
lovingly snapping your fingers, like
December crawling down your sheet
thin spine, your first frostbitten date,
and each year we won't dance that day
because it's too busy with baggage,
̶ but
you popped the joints back in place
with shaken grace round a wrinkled face,
and all the weight of a year's worth
of produce can't be shook from April trees,
or I will or you will or someone will
tear us at the seams
and the beautiful days sung will blend into infinity,
Come round past August, again fly with October,
dancing leaves swirling yellow memories
whispering of the dancer we used to remember,
a cavity of youth now filled. Plastic bags
decompose slowly in the ground.
