When you tell me you no longer love me, the late autumn sky is rose petal-red, and by winter solstice, you’re gone.

I retreat, wake only to eat. Hide away. Hibernate.

Spring trumpets its arrival, the days long and light like daffodils. I awake, I emerge, ready to live again.

Laura Besley is the author of (Un)Natural Elements, 100neHundred, and The Almost Mothers. She has been widely published in online journals, print journals and anthologies. Having lived in the Netherlands, Germany and Hong Kong, she now lives in land-locked central England and misses the sea. She tweets at @laurabesley