Goodbyes mostly, these days

A friend

I would have given my life for

without hesitation

now rushes me off the phone.

Makes excuses

we both would have scoffed at

once.

I listen, acutely,

for the slightest note of recognition

in her voice,

something that will tell me

she still remembers

us.

I wait, in hope,

to hear her simple acknowledgment

of our connection,

once so fierce,

so true.

Instead

I hear her distance.

I hear it

in every word she doesn’t say.

— Photo courtesy of Leslie Cudmore.