that autumn wind

I saw you today. You were gathering pebbles
by the water's edge and I watched you,
thinking about how to approach you

in a way that would be comely,
that could make you smile,
appropriately, in such a way that

you would let me pass between your fingers
and sink into the river, for you had me

stoic and certain, taken into
the consonant sounds in your name
into the bends of your wrists into
your valley into your mind
and wind and I was

all hubris and moxie, having tasted freedom
before the hurricane hit, you dislodged me and like so

the pebbles fell from your bony hands
back into the water and I could have said something
to make you smile but instead I walked away.