That Other Kind Of Leaving Poem by RIC BASTASA

one is too obvious, folding the clothes,
putting them all in the bag, closing the door
and walking out,
this happens almost everyday
to people i know,
and i see tears, and i feel what they feel,
some claim they do not know how to laugh anymore after that event,

a few are envious, we keep this marriage working,
though they do not ask how or why, we show them
about distances,
the paradox of unions
and dissociation
how two people miss themselves when they are far away
emotionally

i guess i must also tell them about my departure
the art of leaving
vicariously,

you are here, but in quintessence
you are never here

giving no importance
to something trivial like a scar of long ago
still sticking somewhere
at your right foot