it doesn’t happen all at once
it happens slowly
like a flood with water rising cautiously
a quiet rebellion spilling over enemy lines with a vengeance
minute by minute, i feel it
the gravitational pull on his body moving him further away from me
my mother says 3,000 miles doesn’t mean anything,
that i will find my way back to him,
but i’m not so sure
it doesn’t happen all at once
it happens so slowly i couldn’t even see it, until it was too late
until the love waltzing in the ballroom of his chest went quiet
and everyone stopped dancing
i tell him i don’t understand
ask him how he could change his mind so suddenly
that things were fine the day before
but it doesn’t happen all at once
the earth is moving microscopic distances as we speak
and neither of him or i are in the same place as we were yesterday