The People Who Cannot Say Good-Bye

There are people who cannot say good-bye
They are born this way/this is how they die
They are the keepers of promises/what moves them does
not wear out
Their loyalty will tear apart your clocks

These are the people who can hear the music in songs
They are the vow carriers
The grandmothers who always leave the porchlight on
No one is lost to the one who sees

These are the women widowed by men they never
married
These are the girls who wait even when you don't come
These are the mothers of orphans/They can turn a fake
into an original
They will hear the prayer in your self-contempt

As a distance is measured/people do not end
It is one of those stories that cannot be written down
except across a lifetime of open doors
There is a holding on beyond letting go
There is a reunion in everybodys chest
This is how we come to make a family from strangers
This is how we light candles

There are people who will remember you when you meet
them
These are the people you can always call at night

They are the humans turned angels by your asking
With each separation they go to seed again

These are the men who carried you on their shoulders
This is the one you are lonely for
the one who begins and ends your hunger
This is the man who says 'Always'

There is a moment of returning on the other side of every
leaving
It is not something I can prove to you in language
This is what we pray about
…We can kill what we desire
and it grows back

There is something that does not wear out
It is the third part of any two people who join
It opens and closes

These are the people alone who are not apart
This is why we listen to the madman when he speaks
People change but they do not stop
This is how we learn 'Forever'

There are people you can count on/They are the keepers
of promises
They are candles lit from each other
They can teach us eternity
We can get what we give/This is the instruction
There are people who do not say good-bye
As distance is measured
You are one of them

—Merrit Malloy

Leaving
If I told you I was leaving,
would you ask me to stay?
If I told you I was giving up,
I wonder what you'd say.
Sometimes I feel like leaving
and throwing it all away.
I'd make my decisions now,
tomorrow, come what may.
Soon, I will be leaving.
I've just decided today.
I'm tired of your mind games,
though I'll miss you in a way.
I want to keep on trying,
I dont really want to leave.
But you can never stop lying,
and I just can't believe.
Right now I'm leaving,
I'm walking out the door.
I want to believe every word you say,
but I know you'll just hurt me more.
So now I'm actually leaving.
I never thought I would.
You say you'll really change this time,
and I believe you could.
But you dont,
so I'm leaving.

—Naomi Ortberg

Last night rollin' in the sheets,
dancin' with you barefoot…
Complete
" I'm not cold "
You put your lips to mine, I put
my love in you.
Hold
me deep inside.
I
sigh
with relief.
This is the best
moment ever
together,
intertwined in a life like dream.
I love you
with every limb,
in every breath
my lungs shall gather.
True…
Our love, even beyond death,
farther
than I ever thought possible.

—Lisa Berry

Magic
It's magic on the nights
when he's holding my hand
and showing me the world
as he knows it.
Beneath the twinkling lights
in this exciting land
my mind whirled
from the passion, I admit.
I return to his smile
and the sparkle in his eye
and I feel secure
to explore this place
every inch, every mile…
I want to know why
he is so sure
it is my face
he wants to see
in the morning forever.

—Lisa Berry

Something More
Let me feel the intensity of you.
Your passion, rage, love, desire-
the fire
that is burning within,
and begin
to give me a taste,
a waste
of your emotion.
An ocean of tears and laughter,
So after,
I will understand
the hand
that grasps me tight
this night
and tries to find my soul.

—Lisa Berry

A Full Pocket
I don't know whether we're coming,
Or if I'm the one who's going
anymore, it's the place where I lied.
I took for granted being by your side.
Still, it's hard to believe the story
that over and over you told me
and never happened really.
I have one request- thats all.
Unfufilled, I fall,
fell, you think you fool me?
You lie to soothe my whims, I see
anything I'm allowed in this world
in a happy crowd
I was hurrled into humanity.
We lie to soothe our whims, I see
You've hurt me for your pleasure,
a comfort beyond measure
there importance to me, or I to them.
How do you keep the worthless gem
of love bestowed to the beautiful,
sadness, given to a lonely fool
that lives off my regret.
My words we shall forget
anymore, it's the place where we tried.

—Lisa Berry

The Vison
I lay here in the dark
wrapped in your old shirt.
The scent of you still lingers,
bringing back the hurt.
My mind begins to wander.
Remembering that gloomy day.
I knew the look in your eyes,
what you were about to say.
Even now, it's hard to imagine
us ever being apart.
How was I to know
you'd leave and break my heart?
I watch the shadows on the wall,
and pretend you're still here.
but, tears slide down and sting my face
as reality becomes more clear.
You're gone.

—Naomi Ortberg

Last night I dreamt of you again.
I'm sure you've changed since then.
You were so close to me;
Your hand touching my knee.
I wanted to hold you,
Like when our love was new.
When I awoke, I was alone.
If only then I had known…
It felt as though you had just left-
Forever…
Every day is like the first,
Though my wounds have been nursed.
Panic still stirs within me
With every memory.
I can't live inside a moment
Forever.
But my greatest fear now
Is that somehow
You'll never be gone
And you'll never be back
Forever…

—Lisa Berry