I never had the answer

for the question in my hand

I was told you just can’t stay here

so go collect your things

It must have felt like death there

long before he chose

The quietness of failure

in a house no longer home

I never asked for this hurt to be mine

I never felt more shameful by and by

I pushed it all away like it would disappear

I never knew a stranger who

I loved more dearly when he died.