that october

And they said,
       You wore your lightest coat that day,
       And you forgot your shoes on purpose.

And the wind, it tore
Through the town like it hadn't before--
       Howling through the alleyways,
       Like there was a crack somewhere it had to get through.

I used to watch you with fireblind eyes,
Used to dream of you lighting up the sky.

But I watched,
I saw you go that day,
       Your coat billowing out like a parachute from your arms.

As you once wrote, to me,
       "People are not always what you believe,
             But they can change,
                    oh, how they change!
             And half of the time, for the worst."

I used to pray that you would come back down
Like some kind of Oz, to this faded town
       Oh, and the sad thing is, you did,
And you never lied,
But you never told me everything.

I used to watch you with fireblind eyes,
Now I just scoff at your untold truths.

-Dana Winter