Outside, the wind blows and shakes the leaves
from the trees. They litter the lawn and sidewalk
with their forms. On the sides of the roads, they
have been beaten to a mush.
The lawn and roads are slick with the rain, the
traffic moves slower, almost as if the vehicles
have an intelligence. Summer is gone they say,
winter comes and nows the time to move slowly
and gather supplies.
The stores and supermarkets seem to be more
crowded. As the mass of people flock to them
and buy the supplies to see them through the day,
week or month.
I dress for an appointment. I step outside and smell
the one thing I had missed for all this year. The smell
of hope. As the spring had come, it faded, as the
summer had wore on, it became almost non-existent to me.
Now, there's a chill in the air, leaves of red and brown
lay on the ground and everything moves a bit slower
at this time of the year. It's now, that I smell the same
odor I have needed to make it through the end of this year.
Hope, that with the end of this year, that the next one will
bring good fortune, a better way to make my dreams
and plans come true. That while work may irritate me,
that people will bother me, that things will not always
feel right, I have hope still.
That one day, I'll leave work with a smile on my lips, a
heart that is beating with joy, that I am happy for the day
be over and the night that comes, for I will have someone
or someones, to share the night with.
I will drive to the place I'll call home, they will be waiting
for me. They will jump up and down, for they are always
glad to see me and in their way, they love me.
For now though, I have little right now. But the main thing
I do have and treasure, is hope. Now that winter is here.