POEM: WHAT CAN I SAY?

photo by Alex Lear

 

what can i say?

(to friends who have separated)

 

breaking apart two who had become one seems criminally

wrong nevertheless there are those of us who

can not stay once love has gone

 

it deeply hurt me to deeply hurt my ex

but i did, and, because i did, i know

the cruel charity of not staying when i realized "i had to go"

 

there is a loneliness that doesn't desire company

a weariness which sleep can never erase

here we unavoidably lick the lead of our failures, a taste

which poisons the sweetness of every yesterday

 

i continue to love you both dearly and will miss

your wholeness surely—what more need be said?

 

when one heart is broken both sides are bloodied—it is

impossible to talk to one without thinking of the other

 

—kalamu ya salaam