How Long?

How long will the school hold off

before pestering Dad about my absence?

Will they call the police if he shuffles, stammers,

says he isn’t sure where I am?

And how will Dad prove to anyone

I left willingly

and am not

buried in the garden?

Perhaps he is searching the streets

trying to find me,

reach me,

bring me back.

I don’t want him to discover me here

but I want him to try –

to be sad

he has lost me.

Yet.

Sometimes I think,

if only

he had just buried me in the garden.

Everything would be easier.