October winds

She told him to run.
Snapshots of her twirling in the firelight, 
her hair looking as if she'd caught the sparks, she 
told him to run. 
She told him to run and her whispers 
haunted his mind.
A lilting song and dark twisted woods, 
she told him to run and not look back. 
Rain fell, and in it, she danced, soaked dress
clinging to her body.
She told him to run,
to run from her and the thousand people in her head.
The autumn leaves crushed under her feet 
and her sweater slipped off her shoulder. 
She told him to run, and her smile, her eyes
slipped through his mind and her fingers let go of his.
She told him to run because the gray sky was what filled her up. 

She told him to run,
sitting on his lap wrapped in a blue blanket, 
stars cold in the sky above them,
and those October nights, she told him to run.
The wind started taking the leaves away and painting the air with their tired brilliance. 
She broke silently and left herself cracked. She told him to run, snapshots
littering the ground and a lilting song.

She told him to run and asked him why he wasn't.
He told her, because love, and left the rest
to the October winds.