I kept my winter coat wrapped
around me
like it would
be ripped
from me
Like I had
something to lose.
Walking into your house,
I could taste the lingering
cigarette smoke
When silence felt suffocating,
we tried humor.
Finally you asked for
what we both knew
I would not,
perhaps could not,
give.
My feeling of resolve
demanded our attention.
I became aware that this time,
this meeting,
could not be kept afloat
from half of myself
given to you
I could not offer pieces
and call that love.
In that moment on the
floor of the room
where we both built
and collapsed
it was decided there would
be no last time.
I took responsibility for my
own feelings.
I took my healing seriously.
As if planned,
memories of the last
2 years played before us
in the realization
that I would no longer fit,
these were patterns
I could not sustain.
I remembered the day
you bought this house
and we stained the floor
installed a new rug
that we now baptize
with the remnants of grief.
We opened the door,
gutted the house and
attempted to restore
what we could.
As I went to leave,
I did not look back
in your direction.
I left the key on the kitchen table
I left us on the living room floor
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