How do you say goodbye
When every teardrop's filled with pain?
How do you say goodbye
When you can't bear to break those chains?
How do you say goodbye
And turn the corner on this bend?
How do you say goodbye
When you don't want it all to end?
How do you say goodbye
And have to put on a brave face,
When your legs feel like they'll buckle
Same time your heart is gunna break?
How do you go on living
With such a void now in your soul?
How do you keep on breathing
When each breath takes of a toll?
How do you not lose faith
Within a world that seemed to fail,
A simple wish to bring back home
Of your loved one fallen ill?
How do you dare not wither
Into a single spec of dust,
When the thought of one tomorrow
Vacant of them weighs on unjust?
You sit and pray for calm and closure
To the nightmare this did bring,
Yet how do you say goodbye
When thoughts have still to spread their wings?
You simply add upon two words
To take the sting out of your pain;
Alas goodbye is much too final
"Goodbye for now" gives hope free reign.
Therefore we close of but a chapter
Seal not the binding of our book;
"For now" is aptly but a pause,
A bridge from earth to heaven's nook.
This poem was a finalist in the
July 2023 poetry contest