A bell declares the door ajar
Red leaves hitchhike from streets afar;
They rest on shelves where stories sleep
And trade their rust for ink to keep
A stranger hums by poetry
The rain revises memory;
Each drop footnotes a fleeting truth
That loss refines remembered youth
A novel opens breath by breath
To show how love survives its death;
Between two pages time resigns
And gentleness rewrites the lines
By dusk the owner lights a flame
Each book exhaling autumn’s name;
Outside the storm forgets its grief—
Inside we learn what words can leaf