I Watch the Skies and Every Leaf and Petal

"Summer Song" (1908). Courtesy of the Metropolitan Museum of Art under an "Open Access" license, CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0)

I romanticize you all year long,
dreaming of

your warm embrace,
your perfumed evening,
your languid morning,
your unrelenting afternoon.

And then like some imposter,
I watch the skies
and every leaf and petal
for any rumor of your
pending departure.

"I'm right here," you say,
but I'll have none of it.

At the first incongruent drop,
I announce that
you were never here to begin with,
perhaps feeling more validation
in you having been
merely an idea.