When leaves ripened in September

Dropped on soil ran over by tires

Mouths opened ajar respiring

Swallowing their presence,

Mother dropped foliage into the fall.

Crumbled into fragmented a sprawl

Of missing puzzle pieces in my memory.

It began surrounded by rivalry

between grandparents fighting over

For one caress of my face shimmering solar

In the withering October.

Winter scurried past tossing youth

Away, along with my missing tooth

Where gust slipped between the gaps.

Oil tumbled down from melting wax

as a smile immersed in raucous claps.

Later on,

No candles were blown on the autumn

day[7] [FS8] — waking up to a vacant room

of citric water gargling in my throat.

I stepped on the frigid floor

Knowing leaves would fall once again.

This time onto aligned cement

whimpering with lungs

Stuffed with boiling phlegm

Throttled to relinquish the only olive stem.