Ember
The two minutes after you're finally inside.
Window, behind youFogging at the edges from your own breath.
Room, ahead of youSmelling faintly of something already lit.Three notes, in the order a room actually meets them.
Clove & Orange Peel
The first thing you notice, and the first thing that fades.
Smoked Cedar & Fig
Where it settles once the door's been shut a while.
Amber & Woodsmoke
What's left on your hands after you've put it down.
You know the season turned not by a date, but by the way your own front door starts to matter more.
By four the light goes flat and thin. Coats come out. The walk from the car gets a little too brisk to enjoy. None of that is the point — the point is what happens after. The key turning. The bag set down. A small warmth arriving before you've even taken your coat off.
Ember was made for that exact two minutes. Not the cold outside — the relief of no longer being in it.
By touch.
Not by sight.
Something's different in this room.
You'll feel it before you can name it.
Held, not lit.
This is what's left when everything else is turned off.
It's that hour now — the one this was made for.
Held for the season. Gone with the last low light of autumn.
Ember — Spring Renaissance