Drizzle slapped rattled windows, and joyless smiles in cracked slanted frames collect memories of dust to a heart of distrust, rearranging rusty door hinges on a careless phrase—beyond that of a shout—tucked in your back pocket, let out when you left just like before. Faces of traces of indecision send chills the length of my spine; behind the oak tree, settled sickles stick to the pavilion to tufts of dead grass, poking through white flakes. What’s missing, what’s out of place, is a cigarette kiss from you to me.

(© 2021 AC)

(Wattpad, Amazon Kindle.)