Forever

No goodbye is forever

unless you can

erase everything you ever

knew about a person and

everything you once felt.

I left Dad a few months ago

and decided

that was it –

I was drawing a line under

knowing him.

But sometimes I wake with his voice in my ears

and his maybe-love in my guts

and I remember everything good about

him which has been left behind

and forget the bad,

and it makes me so sad

I wish I had the courage to call him

and beg for him to be better.

Mum has been dead my whole life

and not a day goes by when I don’t think

about how we would have been together –

all the spaces left empty where

she should have stood.

No goodbye is forever

unless you can

erase everything you ever

knew about a person and

everything you once felt.