How to Say Goodbye

By: Kyle Elden

In the morning I wake
no longer in the same bed
in the same house as you

always before the sun rises
grappling with choices and decisions
that have wrung out our lives
as we have known them together

before the rest of the world begins their day
I face myself in this illustrious unwavering silence
in this darkness that,
dawn after dawn,
crescendos to daybreak
and all the noise of traffic and other people
who mean well but don’t really know our story

there are so many ideas of what it means to love
so much advice….don’t give up, fight for love
you should do this, don’t do that….

somehow we migrated together
to our own battlefield
of buried landmines, stockpiles of weapons
somehow the picture we saw of our love
in the beginning never came to fruition
a thousand piece jigsaw puzzle we struggled
to put together with misshapen and missing pieces

and this is the time
we have parted
each left in the wake
of waves from a ship
we never quite boarded

how does one say it?
goodbye
throbbing in my throat
a thistly unfurling finality
a door closing softly for the last time
the wail of a grieving mother
a siren screaming down the heart of a city
a heart slowing to a stunning stillness
a human soul exiting a body