Catching crystals in the parking lot A colder shoulder shrugs off the daydream “Don’t go, darling ghost” White flag flown half mast, celebrating your First snow all alone Empty houses, a ghost town of false homes Their haunting echoes, a comfort all our own But just as the light we found grows dimmer As our symmetries dissolve A fray in the fabric softly unravels the pattern As a shaking timbre sings to soliloquy An apology bereft Of a closure once held so dearly Swan song sung too early Frozen over, winter’s sympathy Has grown up on goodbyes so half-hearted “Don’t go, darling ghost” Your first snow, all alone