This is the poem, the first poem I have ever read out loud, standing up in front of more than one person, it was quite a mile stone. It is also made up of two other poems that I thought were better as one than they were alone. Sometimes true of people as well

PART 1
So…She called to say that she was leaving town.
Trying to sound unconcerned I swallow hard and ask, “For How Long?”
For a couple of months I think, I’m not quite sure, but I want to see you before I go.
When are you leaving, how much time do we have?
“Tomorrow,” she replies

Everyone proclaims that this goodbye is not forever, but the truth is that none of us can ever know what tomorrow holds. No one is promised a future, each goodbye could be the final one. I approach this moment and try make it last forever but some days forever lasts only 3 minutes and 10 seconds

PART 2
So…I make plans to meet her at the Mothlight after the poetry class.
It’s a Tuesday evening late with only 6 lost souls at the bar.
I sit at the end, animal channel cuteness playing silently above.
I have a beer and wait, wondering how I will feel when I see her

There is no guarantee that the person that you say goodbye to will be the one that returns, there is always the possibility that they won’t remember you at all. Personal growth sometimes occurs out of sight and at the most inopportune time. They could for example have joined the Westboro Baptist Church or worse yet, become vegan.

PART 3
So…We talk, we laugh, as if alone we reconnect, we share, I worry
She leans in, places her hands on my arm, they linger as our eyes meet
Drinking deeply of her presence I save a vision of her to see me through the coming famine.

Look on the bright side they say, absence makes the heart grow fonder, well in truth that is not always the case, sometimes saying goodbye just confirms what we have already know in our heart, that this time goodbye is forever, and that moving on is also part of being human.

PART 4
So…I reach out touch her cheek and say, “you know how special you are to me”
She touches my soul as she replies, “you are very special to me too
When saying goodbye to someone you love, the pain is proportional
How deep, how long, how far?
The discomfort made exponentially worse by those with flip phones or those traveling to remote lands such as Texas

Sometimes goodbye simply illuminates the obvious, that you and your soon to be goner are going in opposite directions. A dead giveaway is when someone is crying and someone is jumping up and down with unabashed excitement, totally oblivious to the flowing tears.

Fearing the pain of goodbye we try so hard at times to avoid it but that goodbye could the first step on a wonderful journey. Hiding from it could lead to the worst possible goodbye.
The goodbye that was never said, the opportunity missed, and now gone forever.
Our goodbyes were said, I await her return.