Apples are no treat for me
(or anyone really)
nothing to excite,
nothing like chocolate.

Chocolate for my cache
(a bag full)
on October 31
and Scarlet in her blue windbreaker.

Water towers reach high up
(and so did I)
behind her head for a hand
of fine blonde hair.

Oak trees all around the silver thing
with graffiti all over,
our name up there somewhere,
but the aroma of rotting leaves…

Climbing up the water tower
to feel as though a king
She climbed with me, my promised queen
She wore my high-school ring

We laughed and faked a slip or two
grinned at eternal youth
We never thought of fear, my friend
and death was not a truth

yes, our names up there, from where she fell
seeing her descent in slow motion
my eyes held her slim costumed body
as I dove into disbelief and shock's ocean

couldn't pull my eyes away from her small form
not breathing, so lifeless, how we all grieved
seeing her crumpled self, looking small,
we would remember the aroma of rotting leaves...

A circle of her friends at grave
watched as the hole was filled
I smelled the rotting leaves again
the Autumn air was chilled

Her service now concluded
I took my sullen solitude
Walked with it for quite awhile
We both got lost within the mood

Wondering what might have been
If budding love had bloomed
Questions rot like fallen leaves

Within my laden heart entombed

And so I wandered
Back to where she lay
Feeling the dirt beneath my nails
As I dug and scraped

My Autum love
I couldn't bear
To let her stay
Within the dirt there

I pulled her up
And brought her home
Safe in my arms
Rotting leaves swirling all around