Chuck Miller

Together on a fall day

Fall colors begin to fade,
giving way to dark and gray.
Who exactly decided you couldn’t stay?

You can be the CEO
or just a street wino.
Death as arbitrary as the wind blows.

Years go by and I still wonder why.
I barely said hello to your sweet face before goodbye.
Perhaps our time together was just a lie.

These new things I build,
hoping the void I might fill.
Better to move, they say, than remain standing still.

But am I drifting further away
or drawing closer by the day?
It’s all the same, anyway.

“Do you have children?” comes the question I dread.
Panicked responses swirl in my head.
“No,” I answer as the rooster crows — truth unsaid.

The thought of never seeing you again is too painful to bear.
Reuniting in heaven is my only hope of lifting this despair.
Please God, if you’re there, I beg you, answer just this one prayer.