When autumn came with leaves falling slowly as my tears never shed, it was over. You had left me in silence.
Silenced with too much unsaid.
I never told you my dreams, my secrets. I never asked about you, I never listened and I never told you about pain and what to hurt is.
To steal is wasting the days we could have had, to never listen, to assume and to hide, we never made plans, and our paths simply diverged.
Still I dream of those sweet summer days when we found comfort in stillness together, while painting a future on skin that never was true.
The ache of your absence has filled up the void that you left, and as I wait for the gales of November to fill up the hollows with mud. I wonder if you hurt in a similar way.
Today Lisa host the prosery at dVerse where the challenge is to integrate the following line:
To hurt is to steal
From U2:s song Mysterious Ways, by Bono.
June 9, 2025
Björn Rudbergs writings 
I love the way you split the prompt line, Björn, and the bittersweet tone of this Prosery piece, with a hint of pathetic fallacy.·
A bit pathetic I would say too… but alas I think many relationships fail because there is too little talk.
Autumn (decay), silence (void), secrets (not said), pain (wound), gales (breath), mud (dirt). How can any relationship survive these things? So much unresolved, left behind to haunt. Those brief punctuations keep us clinging to an illusion. Your poem resonates deeply, Bjorn.
I feel we need to use those good days to really learn about the other person instead of waiting until it’s too late.
Very good split of the line — and ensuing philosophy. The theme itself is very powerful, interesting. I remember as a teenager writing similar lyrics with someone. We agonised over who left who, and that stayed with me, the difference of (first line) “Ever since you left me girl” to “Ever since I left you” in the end we had two different songs. But that stayed with me – different viewpoints. scanned through again your poem if “you” had left, but can see you made the right choice with the philosophy — eloquent.
I wonder if not most relationships just trickle away like this.
Autumn has never been a favourite time for me, unless as a wallow in mud and melancholia. You capture this perfectly and painfully. My incomplete cycles of teen-hood still haunt me on a wet day… U2 words well seen and incorporated, Mr BB!
Autumn is a perfect place to mourn what you didn’t do in summer.
So much sadness, Björn. Very clever split of the phrase.
So much more fun to split the line I think
wow, I could really feel the hurt and a fav part was near the end with the idea of the “ache of absence’ filling the void of being left.
We do tend to fill up any void with what’s available.
l)
I loved the way you have woven in the selected words into your prose. I can feel the hurt and sadness. Yes, sometimes one wonders if the other feels the pain. sigh..so much that should have been said and suddenly it is all gone.
Indeed… and many things are easier in summer.
The reflection and lamentations of the protagonist are oh-so-recognizable, and there’s something so sad about fall and the shedding of leaves being an echo of the breakdown of a relationship. I absolutely love the last line: ” I wonder if you hurt in a similar way.
Everybody hurts
A very moving poem.
Beautiful and sad. Btw we both wrote about heartbreak.
The manner in which you divide the line makes your poem even more poignant … well done, Bjorn.
Nicely done. Skillful use of the enjambment.
Splendid.
The sad undercurrent makes this a powerful read, really hits.