the nights inch their way up your spine, they tingle and whisper and sweep across your eyes. as the summer draws to a close, it’s the heat that first leaves. it chills and you never notice it until you step in the void it has left. suddenly, like a promise never kept. you laugh, where did the summer go? where has all the heat gone? you settle down on the bench, hands on your knees. so foolish, you shake your head. there’s night on the horizon and it’s coming for you. and the fall, and further still, the winter. full of ice and snow and hard wind. even then, even with all the dead leaves, something of this left, something of this that will never leave. and the summer goes without ever saying goodbye.