Special Feature Collaborative Poem--By Michael Todd, Lynn DeVrieze, Christopher Mitchell, Donna Brumback Nalley and DeAnna Metcalf--United States

Goodbyes

By Michael Todd, Lynn DeVrieze, Christopher Mitchell, Donna Brumback Nalley and
DeAnna Metcalf

The hardest goodbyes are the ones not heard;
Come from the heart to land who knows where.
Spoken in plain sentences, word for word...
As though I had one goodbye left to spare.

I have a heavy heart, but empty hands.
Such a simple phrase, I'm unable to say.
Through my broken hourglass slips the sand,
My farewell falls somewhere along the way.

As I stare along the empty road south,
Imagining the departing Greyhound empty;
Only quiet breath leaving my mouth,
And tears falling toward flowers pretty.

The sweetest hellos are whispered by you
As our hearts meet to share a wordless song.
I know as we join in harmony true
That you’ve been missing from me far too long.

There are no words to quell the thirst
A drink of your soul can supply,
So hush the verbal notion first
And speak not, a needless goodbye.