Like Soil — a poem

Written October 2022, Zakopane, Poland

Some goodbyes don’t happen all at once—they unravel slowly, in the spaces where someone’s absence becomes more present than their presence ever was. This piece is about that quiet, painful realization of being forgotten, and the desperate hope to hold on just a little longer. It’s about how some people let go like autumn leaves, effortlessly drifting away, while others hold on, even as the season changes around them.

I caught you forgetting me,
and it’s not like I didn’t know
that was going to happen,

it’s just that I thought
you would’ve kept me
in your heart a bit longer,

but October seems
to follow you around,
and I’m sorry I can’t be as good
as the leaves at letting go,

and so your name will seep
like soil from my mouth,

when all I wanted
was to tell you this:

please don’t leave
until I get better at being better