Day 4

Take the word "case" and add a word or phrase to it for the title, then write your poem.  I cheated a bit, and took a different direction with the title of the first poem.  However, I played by the rules for my second work.


What Remains Unspoken

In case I don’t return I want you to know
that I was never really yours

despite the violent words and fists you kept
on the nightstand to reassure yourself

that I’d still be here come morning.
But you should understand this.

One morning, I’ll wake up with
more courage than I went to bed with

and it will be a day like every other day
except later you will notice that your dinner

is not waiting for you on the table and
you might wonder where I am.  So

in case I don’t return I want you to know
that I was never really yours.





Case of Goodbyes

You’re going
on a trip,
searching
the closet
for a worn
duffel bag
that held
uniforms, photos
and shaving kit
when you
headed off to
Bosnia in ’92.

Looking in
the mirror
becomes
meaningless
as the thick
curtain of
memory loss
has fallen,
obscuring
even your
sense of self
from view.

The cruelest
truth is that our
final goodbyes
were folded
and packed slowly,
over many months
and years
with us,
still living our lives
unaware
and you,
disappearing bit by bit.