this is a poem about a girl
who didn’t think people would forget her
so she didn’t try to start over
she didn’t think people would move on
so she didn’t try to go forward

she thought their world would wait for her
when she wasn’t there
she forgot how easy it was
to forget one person
when that person is gone

she forgot that
just because they were her only friends
didn’t mean that she was theirs
she didn’t realize that
just because she didn’t want to get close to anyone else
didn’t mean that they wouldn’t

but she watched them
go on with their lives
clearly fine without her
when the her-shaped hole in their life
closed up like an old wound
she took one look at her old life
and finally decided
to stop walking backwards

but when she looked ahead
there was no one there
she forgot that in the midst of
trying to keep up with her old life
she burned every bridge into a new one

so now she’s alone
thinly connected to two lives
neither of which she  feels belongs to
floating in a lonely limbo
missing every train that has ever passed