Poem: Walk away

Francisco Gonzalez on Unsplash

He picks his leather shoes up off my floor
He doesn’t bother to lace them
My skin, once warm beneath his touch
Now bruised
I watch him walk away

She takes the booties from my hand
She smiles and thanks me for them
Years of friendship crocheted into the yarn
Now gone
I watch her walk away

He groans as I help him into slippers
His words are both heavy and fleeting
All of the days we had become seconds
Not long
I watch him away

The earth looks at me and wonders
“Girl, why are your feet still bare?”
I take a breath and sigh a story
She knows
I can’t walk away