Autumn

The song is as familiar
As the grass blowing
In a late summer breeze
Bending fatally,
Too brittle to
Ripple serenely.
That’s what happens
After too much sun.

It sounds new.
I wake up
Noticing the way
The shadows of the trees fade into brightness
Across my ceiling, also new.
A few leaves
Fluttered to the ground
While I was asleep.

Sleep is supposed to help.
It’s supposed to chase away
The emptiness and ambivalence
That entered me last night.
It was supposed to stop
The cycle before it could begin.

But I forgot that I grow
In my sleep.
Here I was, pushing you away,
And I let myself sleep, so
My heart grew anyway.
Better to stay awake
Where I can control
The images and hide
Behind the trees.