The Fall Falsities of Texas

Fall is the time

For the sound of leaves crunching under your feet

            (But the leaves are green and growing, they never fall)

The smell of cinnamon in Mom’s candles

            (The cinnamon scent was all sold out again)

The taste of pumpkin pie on Thanksgiving

            (It may not feel like fall, but at least I can taste it)

Waiting in the car for the bus because it’s too cold

            (Go outside and wait, it’s not that cold.)

Flannel shirts, pajama pants, scarves, and big puffy jackets

            (To create the false feeling of fall

                     No matter how hot it is outside

             Even in eighty-degree weather)

Borrowing his jacket because you forgot yours

             (The roses die 

                      Withered by the scorching heat

            Their petals scattered across the ground

                        The remains of the love never reciprocated

             The jacket you were never offered)

Walks in the park, orange oceans of leaves covering the sidewalk

            (It never happens, it’s all in your head

            The grass is green

                        The leaves are green

            The flowers are blooming       

                        The roses are dying

                        Fall is the time for

           Falling                         

                      Into an abyss of falsities

            We never receive the things we expect

                        They never reciprocate the love we give

            The leaves don’t fall here

                        We fall

            And we shatter.)

-Lucy