those black patent leather little girl shoes with the buckle i wore in 2nd grade
me and my sister together, she's the m i'm the j...
somehow, Fall coming with its sharp cooling sun makes me sad. maybe it's the memories of being huddled in the cold, saying goodbye was never easy for me i've said, even to ms. summer, her sheer short dresses blowing in the breeze, i can see myself sitting by the ocean arms around my knees...
it's like when a freshly divorcee notices for the first time just how empty the bed really is, how annoying it is to have to reach an arm over to shut the alarm clock from screaming it's 6am...
a furry dear friend left on the table for good, how the leash and collar go un-picked up, how they're thrown in the baggie with all the others and quietly put on the top shelf...
give me cold winter, who fights with me blowing bitterness in my face and stubbornly flips the hem of my woolcoat up, chilly hands everywhere...give me hot summer with it's relentless humidity, a perpetual dripping down the back of my dress, and the tossing and turning at 3am...
even young spring with it's colorful balloons and fat flowers, is acceptable to me...baby birds and bunnies, kitties and doggies, it's a mischievous child running from this room to that with a pinwheel, it's the sad face that watches the raindrops stream down the windowpane...
but mr. fall is like a curtain closing, like the sun being slowly packed away, it's the perpetual goodbye season, mommies letting first-time kindergarteners walk slowly up the steps of the yellow school bus...
it's the time when all the leaves go out with a bang, how the air feels so much fresher with just a little kick...
it's how ms. once was a young girl watches him as he goes off into the sunset...