An ending

Ed Burle

The man with the shaven head has given up

his hair

because he has lost, because he has lost her;

because she’s made it quite clear –

that something, for her, has changed irreversibly;

because no matter how often he can say those words to her –

say them as he did only yesterday, as he goes on saying them

even now – they cannot unsay those things that have been said;

because he can see, there is no place here to hide;

because nothing can stop

what is pushing them, has moved them apart;

because she – troubled, lovely – more lovely perhaps

than she’s ever been to him –

she is so far from him now;

because if there is a future for them – whatever it may be –

it isn’t here or now,

and each of them must try to find their way;

because perhaps even from pain, and from all

that now is lost,

someday, something may grow;

because even if it was – even if it still is – this fight

is no longer worth fighting for.

(published in This Recurrence of Light, Ecca, 2022)

Featured at The Red Wheelbarrow on 4 August 2022 as one of the Ecca poets