this is how you leave- as if it isn't a last goodbye. as if tomorrow, the sun will rise once more and nothing will have changed. do not say 'forever'. believe with all your heart that you will return to all you have ever known, that the path you are walking has not diverged. lies are easy to tell.

this is how you leave- quietly, with all the tacit promises that silence avows. with your step as soft as rainfall. let your prayers be unspoken and may they never cross your lips. never make a wish you know to be futile. lies are hard to hear.

this is how you leave- with tears in your eyes and a scream lodged in the valley of your lungs. hold the city to your ears and your hands to your heart and let the sobs overwhelm you till you can no longer draw breath. then (and only then) bury the shards of your heart in the graveyard of forever, and move on.

this is how you leave- with pomp. with fanfare. with the knowledge that you have been the best you could be and done all you could do. remember to celebrate. there is so much more to life than the cotton-soft memories we fall back on when the landscape is bleak. the thorns are as important as the roses.

this is how you leave- as if you were never there at all. as if the years have been nothing more than a dream that leaves you where you wake. deny. forget. put a band-aid over the scar that gapes across the expanse of your chest, and sleep easy.

this is how you leave- you never really do. goodbyes are hard to say. but trust in your hellos. to every end there is a beginning, always and forever.

this is how you leave-

you don't.