how could we have known?

we charged into September

like a lion on a hare's back

all eagerness, certainty, and recklessness

the heat that came in waves

throughout our homes, our feet, our minds

sizzled like slugs

caught on the drying, moth-eaten rind

when we looked back

through halls of rewound time

—tock-tick . . . tock-tock-tick—

we found only mirrors

where our hearts used to be

a carbon copy left behind

as waste-scattered debris

"how could we have known?" is a poem by Amber Byers, 2025