I remember your smile – it’s like autumn.
Gentle like the red leaves falling,
dancing in the air – beautiful,
yet fleeting.
Your smile was the fading
colours of orange, red, and yellow,
vibrant in their quiet, gentle way.

I took it for granted then,
how the left corner of your lips curl more than the right,
how your chuckle sounds like acorns falling onto the ground,
how your hands, coarse like the veins of the dried leaf,
was there to hold me when I was weak.

But then we fell apart, and you left,
now the leaves have rotten and browned.
The harsh winter looms overhead,
I am alone without a sound.
Your smile now haunts me like the black
shadows of the bare branches in winter.
I think about our autumn, the honey-gold hues of that time,
and learn that the prettiest things are ephemeral.