leaving (a sonnet)

Note: There are two types of sonnet: Elizabethan and Italian. While both forms contain 14 lines (usually of iambic pentameter), the Elizabethan rhyming scheme is different than the Italian. This sonnet follows the Italian (and perhaps less familiar) tradition.

Leaving
by Troy Cady

And he recalls those days of limp wet leaves,
of walks in rain and talks beyond the why’s
of friends. She placed her small soft hand in lies
and stroked the pain enclosed and clenched; he grieved,
chest taut and tense till now, and found relief
in sobs. Her mouth kept still. And warm damp sighs,
pale skin, lithe heart, held gaze, brave soul, and time
had eased his fears to sleep with fresh wet heaves.

Ash trees let go of torn, spent leaves. They held
before through seasons that had always fall
or winter chill, but now astir, they blew
from wind that once was ire. Air cooled, they fell
by cloud and mist and droplets pure. Her call
he heard. Like limp wet leaves, he dropped, then flew.