Just then

So,

her best friend asked me

and I told her,

just as I've told all of you,

that I was in love until the last moment,

that I never gave up on L.,

that I never gave up Love,

that I got up to go to work

on the morning she was leaving

and looked at her sleeping in my bed

and I said,

"I said 'Goodbye.' "

Just then and just then,

as the goodbye slipped out and down,

my love died.

I hardly felt it go.

Maybe that's what death feels like,

one moment here,

the next breath,

gone.

But no pain,

just then, just then, just then.

Pain isn't due to arrive with his bags until night falls.

I like to think upon that last moment of love.

She looked so small,

there upon the mattress,

the covers needing a fluffing,

a cat asleep near her furthest foot.

Love breathing her last shallow rhythms,

her last shining feelings,

the last few grains of her time,

then just then, gone.