172 days,

14 books,

and 2 albums

since the last time I said

your name and words of love

since the last time you said

my name and words of

indifference

calculated to make us both

move in another direction

I kept my feet firmly planted

I let the morning’s tears

mark a new day

I let the evening’s shadow

draw a curtain of

silence

Even as I checked to see

what 140-character missive

you had shared in the hours between

I told my friends it was over

I told my mother I missed you

I told you nothing

There isn’t going to be

a time in which you open

the petals and release

pheromones of truth

There is only

the broken stem

shoots of a new harvest

It took so long to remember

that I left long before

you bid me goodbye

It took so long to forget

the ways in which you mistook

love for codependence

friendship for the empty bowl

I could not fill you

and neither will she

I know that now

and there is nothing

to say

But I open the curtains

Let in the light