[116 words]
for Kim
The maple leaves fell and the wind swirled and mounded them,
and you were dying, and it felt to me as heavy as the snow locking
down the leaves, the panic they must have felt I felt because
you always wanted to work in the woods, moving from tree
to tree, the way you moved when you kissed me in the dark
I could feel your hands assessing—inside my logs and cords—
the phloem, cambium, xylem, sap, my heartwood—
though composed of dead cells—yet full of resins and tannins,
hard and resistant to decay, so I am perfectly suited now to guide
you from chair to bed to couch to chair to bed, my falling leaf.
JK Miller is a former third grade dual language teacher. He lives on the edge of cornfields. He started submitting poetry in 2025. He is the first place winner of the 2025 Helen Schaible International Sonnet Contest. He is the author of the chapbook Bicycling Poems and Rye & I. His poems have appeared in many literary journals. In the summer of 2025 he rode his bicycle from his house to his son’s house, to see his newborn grandson. The ride was 1,350 miles. He plays the harmonica and likes to garden. Connect at https://jkmiller.blog/ and also https://www.facebook.com/jkingsfordmiller
