The Summer Came Without Us

Winter asked us to stand close enough to keep each other warm,
To find a little shelter from the weight of every storm.
The nights were long and endless, but I never feared the dark,
Because your hands were always there, a place to find my heart.

You knew the words that saved me, knew the battles I had faced,
You stood beside the shadows when I thought I’d lost my place.
I never had to wonder if you saw the things I couldn’t say,
Because somehow you made the hardest nights feel softer anyway.

Before the year had opened, before the skies turned blue,
Before the first of January taught me, I could lose you.
Before the days got longer, before the seasons changed their tune,
I swear the world was softer underneath that winter moon.

Then midnight came so quietly, no warning in the air,
No thunder splitting open skies, no signs we would change that year.
Just little things grew distant, little words left unsaid,
Until the warmth we used to share became a memory instead.

I’ve watched the daylight grow, the evenings stretching wide,
Funny how the world expands while something fades inside.
Fields grow wider every week, rivers run their course,
Everything is finding somewhere, everything except my thoughts.

Summer came with open windows, with a warmth I couldn’t hold,
With flowers reaching for the sun and leaving me out in the cold.
The trees have learnt to let go, the birds have learnt to fly,
And I keep searching for the winter written somewhere in the sky.

I don’t want to keep reminding you of wounds you cannot see,
Or turn every quiet moment into asking you to rescue me.
I know the storm has passed us, I know the rain has dried,
But some things cast a shadow even when they’ve moved aside.

I don’t need you to fix the winter, or undo the months between,
I only wish you missed the warmth of everything we’d once been.
Because summer keeps on blooming, and the world keeps moving on,
But I’m still holding onto winter, wondering where we went wrong.