Gritting my teeth, I can begin to admit
I have been struggling
In the first half of this year
I got bruised by my own undoing
Whittled so brittle
On cold spring afternoons

And you have been a salve
The gentle warmth of a grounded voice
Through cheap headphones
Brimming with sweet greetings
Quick with earthy encouragements
Easing me down cracked pavements

Your presence, your messages
Formed the shards of a treasured friendship
And so, I wonder where you got to
When you boiled off, evaporated into silence
A ghosting, an erasure
This sore cavity that stings between us

And will I ever know
Why you chose 
This ending for us…

The quiet vibrations
Of my heart’s inner mutterings
Leap at every sound that might be you
An apparition in the windows
A spirit in the ether, but no, it’s only
My creaking bones’ dejected questioning

And I will never know
Why you chose
This ending
For us…