I would’ve brought it in-
Your bike, if I’d known that it would rain.
I would’ve listened to your stories
if they didn’t always sound the same.
I would’ve loved you, if I’d known you,
If I walked two blocks away
And sat down on your porch steps
And heard what you had to say.
We walked right past each other-
Every solitary day
We watched the leaves fall separately,
We watched the branches sway.

We didn’t cross the other’s mind
We each watched a different tree.
You watched the one by your house,
I watched the one by me.
I could’ve told you everything
I knew about the leaves
How they swirled just like a paintbrush
And were vivid so you could see
Them bright against the morning sky,
Bold as bold could be,
Showing their real colors
So unlike you and me.
But of course I didn’t know you then.
And I used to think they were free,
But they were only dead and falling
Cast off by the frosting tree.

All I want to tell you now
Is that I wish I’d known you then.
We never really saw each other,
But now we never will again.
We watched the leaves fall separately,
But when it got cold then I went in.
You stayed out past the sunset,
To watch the trees grow bare and thin.