Like a leaf falling, with small zigzagged steps,
She came to me through autumn foliage
(The tree-trunk bent light followed, fell and leapt
[Her eyes kept me and the wind to the edge]
Reflecting off the myriad faces)
And lighted down upon my open palm.
Vein-laced, like ghosts floating through dead spaces,
She came to me, like me, disguised in calm.
Meeting like a wet red leaf to concrete -
Sleek and taut - I held her and sped her death
To a new degree - a common defeat
That I deliver with my condemned breath.
Imperious as ever my winter
Returns - vacant, vast - and I repent her.
