O: October

 Hello, October,

      I know you have read my love letters to April and July.  And I know that you know damn well that there is no love letter coming your way.  I do try to embrace you.  Really I do.  I know so many people who count you among their loved ones but I can't seem to get beyond merely tolerating you.  Those beautiful red, golden, brown, green colors for which you are so revered?  To me they become the funeral flowers for spring and summer.  Every day you cut back my light and that saddens me.  And the thing is, the light you bring in the late afternoon is as sharp and annoying as a sliver of glass on my bare foot.
There is something keenly electric, something physically shocking about often hot dry winds of October.  I don't like them.  They bring crackles and fire to town.

   
          Some people think Halloween makes you the best but I am sure you read my thoughts on that.  In a nutshell, Halloween was okay fifty years ago when it was relatively non commercial and mostly about kids but it has since grown into a greedy, creepy day.  Halloween is no reason for me to love you.



   


     









       And, truly, you sealed your fate in my book when, in mid stride one year, you took my father away.  You didn't even warn us.  You came early in the morning and you took him and for that I can never forgive you.  In fairness, once upon a time, you gave me my mother and you blessed my parents' wedding day but still, you were acting in character when you took my father.

 
      I will continue to tolerate you because that's the kind of person I am.  I am not about hatred or meanness but I can't and won't love everyone, including you.  I certainly won't slam the door on you and I will always look for the good in you but you gotta know, I can't write you a love letter today.

Yours truly,
Gracie