The Storybook You Left Behind

A Poem

Photo by Nadi Lindsay: https://www.pexels.com/photo/back-view-of-a-woman-sitting-on-a-bed-while-holding-a-book-4865603/

The books were never enough,
were they?

I could have written every story
and covered the ceiling
in words
straight
from my heart,
but
you never would have noticed
because all this time
I was just talking
to myself,
wasn’t I?

Your name was written on my heart,
but where was mine
engraved on yours?

I could have saved the world
link by link,
note by note,
verse by verse,
until the song ended —
but
ours was a funeral dirge
meant for endings,
unhappily ever after,
till we burned
to ashes.

Oh, I thought we were a melody
to stand the tests of time,
but you were always gone,
weren’t you?