Fallen leaves

TheFeatheredSleep

Your suitcase is by the door in my mind

you have unpacked and packed a thousand times

it’s now or never, it’s been too long

you’re out of here, you’re out of love

empty like a meal without nourishment

and if I could, I’d ask you to come back

but you left before today

I see it in the careless gaze of your eyes

the house is empty without your noise

I hear only the echo of regrets

ask you to return and you ignore my voice

the coldness in your stare gave you away

there was nothing but bitterness and anger remaining

you said it wasn’t me, but I was the one you cut down

with your stare that went on, out of sight

down the road, out of town

like you were already running away

boarding a bus, changing your story

it’s been half my life and it’s been just one day

since you and I met, and you made me yours

how then can I get used to being without

the one constant beside me in life?

maybe the only way is when you know

you mean nothing anymore

they’re already over you, halfway down the road

maybe they never needed to be

could have been love wasn’t the source

but what they needed and wanted more

could be they were only kind when

it served their interest, nothing else

and when they left

they swept the feelings up

like fallen leaves

34 thoughts on “Fallen leaves”

  5. Sadly I feel like I’ve done this to people in my life. I wonder if I will ever be able to participate in a healthy relationship again someday? This is a powerful piece that hit me…

  6. Reading this was like watching scenes unfold in a love story, wanting to look away, but cannot.

    “and if I could, I’d ask you to come back

    but you left before today

    I see it in the careless gaze of your eyes

    the house is empty without your noise

    I hear only the echo of regrets”

    I feel the loss and pain in each word. That’s great writing.

  12. As so often happens, a sort of counterpoint plays along in my mind. This time, just a few lines from Leonard Cohen, “The Stranger Song”. I think it was the sweeping up the leaves that queued it.

    “And then sweeping up the jokers that he left behind
    you find he did not leave you very much
    not even laughter
    Like any dealer he was watching for the card
    that is so high and wild
    he’ll never need to deal another”

  14. Perhaps filling the loneliness at our center is not something others can ever really manage; walking alongside each other with patience and kindness may be the best we are capable of. Your touch a universal sense of disappointment and loss at love. Thanks for the thoughtful write . . .

  16. I agree. We can’t depend upon another. But so many of us do. The calmest souls I know find more within than without and can love but don’t depend upon it. I think understanding is the best way to salve any emptiness. When someone understands, that’s when it would work

  29. Haha! At this new blog, yes. *big hugs* It’s a great piece of writing, Candice. No doubt about that.

  32. “Your suitcase is by the door in my mind” – The very first line draws me in, the imagery and the meter of the poem. And the lines “the house is empty without your noise / I hear only the echo of regrets” sum up the melancholia and the pain recurring in the poem. Beautiful. Thank you for sharing.

Comments are closed.