We Are Iron (Poem by Erica Dansereau)

We are iron
Our strength bridges mountains
Together, in the heat
That rains upon us from a summer sky
We are unstoppable, that is
Until the fever subsides and
Clears your head
The sustenance that maintains my blood
Has tainted it now all the same
As you leave me to stand alone
The season moves onward,
Quickly along your side –
Away from me
You shrug me from your life
Like trees shedding leaves in the late of autumn
As the world changes from vibrant to gray,
It becomes much like the way
You have left me
Forgotten now, we are
Left to fade into the ground –
A failed love, a dead dream,
The remainder of us is
Barely-there
We are rust stains on concrete,
And as brightly as we once burned,
We are diminished to the remnants
That reside in the sun
Transitional, as the elements
We are iron

– Erica Dansereau