The night he told me
He was 25
And had to get married
To someone other
Than me
We were sitting
In a Home Depot
Parking lot
At 9 pm
And the street lamps
Burned
Above us
In their
Usual neon haze
And the moon
Silhouetted
Our faces on
The car windows
And the breeze
Turned leaves
Over and over
In its soft palms
And I thought
How cruel
Of the world
To continue
On so ceaselessly
As my love
Dissolved
Into memory

–pondering the dissolution of my interracial love, Sarah Gray Isenberg

June 2016