Get me out, you said. Now.

Get me out. The unfamiliar bed

a prison, your body behind bars,

your bright spirit locked away.

I once knew what you meant to say before you said it,

I understood every lift of your eyebrow, every look.

I could read you like a book.

The words play

and play again. As I pay

at a till for milk or bread,

board a train, turn and turn on the pillow

where your head should be

Now, you say

and it slams shut around me, that last day

when I chose not to understand you,

when I tried to keep you, keep you

in my custody, walled in by my will,

when I tried to make you stay.