When you lose someone,
Evenings turn melancholy,
And the cold days of December
They start to make sense.

I see them in the leaves,
That spring out before summer
And go through the yearlong journey,
Only to fall to the ground in autumn
And be covered beneath inches of snow,
When the oblivion of winter descends on the ground.

They have disappeared from sight and gone,
And only I’ll remember they existed,
I ask why they came into my life only to leave,
But I know better than to ask this question
Because I’ve read the stories of loss
Scribbled on the pages of nature.

I envy the perpetual sea
That stretches across decades of life,
And meet every night its lover,
The moon, who might change every night
And return in another time and shape,
But return nevertheless,
I want what they have.

– ni