The Autumn Of His Life Poem by Janice M Pickett

Lips tremble as another leaf falls
For this is the autumn of his life
Goodbye dear love he whispers
Silent now his days and long now his nights

Traces of tears fill his coffee cup
His tongue licks the drops clean
Pain pierces his grieving heart
A still breeze tickles his chin
His hollow stomach and aching back
fill him with defeat

Burned by his past he sits
old photographs stare up at him
memories he cannot escape
Wet cold nights huddled together to keep warm
Pillows stained with her lipstick
Sheets covered in her memory

Perfumed blankets knitted by her delicate fingers
fill the air with dreams that linger on
without knowingly doing so he tries
one more time to rid her image from his mind
but being only human he cannot make it happen

He opens the curtains
they billow out into mystic darkness
Smoke rises from a neighboring chimney
rising up into the sky
As if to say
“Goodbye my love”
“I will see you again soon”