Don’t Come Back

A Poem

Photo by Ansley Ventura on Unsplash

Don’t come back when the tide goes down,

when your feet sink into the sand,

when the waves no longer beat against the shore,

like the way, your heartbeat does against your chest.

Don’t come back when the birds no longer sing my name,

when they no longer fly,

when they no longer nest by your window.

Don’t come back when my scent disappears from your pillow,

phantosmia and olfactory being what makes you

beg and long for me.

Don’t come back when my phone rings to voicemail

when the grainy voice at the end of the line it halted at a beep.

Don’t come back when you read our old messages,

when my voice replays in my head,

when you begin to wish you apologised.

Don’t come back.

Don’t come back.