Late Leaf

I fall
a late leaf onto crisp snow
skating across the ice
dancing on the wind

the color of flame
edged with black
capturing last colors
before the white embrace

I will not last
in this world of slush and snow
frozen, crushed

for seconds
or minutes
I exist

I fly
defying gravity
before frost takes me

Surgery

I tried surgery to get you out
Plucked you like slivers from my skin
but you were deeper

Bumps here, there
belying what lay beneath

Foreign bodies wound
so tightly in my flesh it was
hard to say where they
began and ended

I cut them out myself
burned the pieces
there was no one to do it for me

deeper still
You were in my heart

And how could I take you from there?

My heart learned to beat
around you
It could not function now on
its own

The Lock in Light

All the rest are shadows
they live inside my heart
they eat up hope
pull wishes from stars

they are the ones who keep me quiet
keep me less
keep me kept

they represent the ones who left
the betrayers
heartbreakers
the destroyers

they are locked behind bars of light
so that sunshine is separated from sorrow

till darkness falls

it breaks the prison doors
it sets all the rest free
spilling them into my would be brightest corners

coaxing out most broken memories
possibilities, become probabilities
rock solid hopes
reduced to ash

till sunrise brings the lock in light
absences are filled
broken things are put away
protected from all the rest
by all that is, all that are, all that will be.