here is a new version of you

 saved for a single, untroublesome moment

as your planned surprise attack hit its mark

with the ease and precision of

a learned practice…

i staggered beneath the gaze

blindsided by a swift and startling introduction

to your black-coated stranger with hooded eye

who replaced the heart of you

and cracked against me

like a coiled whip..

what currents sailed you west again

i must wonder

is the silence of a once ringing telephone

or the empty chairs placed at

a once- abundant table

surrounded by family and friend

quieted now

as the result of your ease

in walking away?

is your heart, once filled with friendships running fire hot

this easily dismissive

cracked and seared by a surprising icy cold?

does your odd, gentle hand

hold your secrets of an ease

in discarding humans at every turn

 unforgiving

or unable to resolve misunderstandings?

or do you wait in silence

for the other, always, the other

apology to come first

or is there a twisted satisfaction

in demanding a begging soul’s

plea for forgiveness

deserved or not…

my shoulders are tired, bruised

from  carrying the burden of explanation

the weight of excuses for my daily bread’s

rhyme or reason

my fresh, tender wounds gave you

the last blood i could spare

from a week’s worth of lashings

and you, who have smashed

the only extended olive branch

i could muster

responded in kind

with a mighty silence…

teaching me hard

painful lessons

in the sad, unfathomable

art of walking

away..