Goodbye 2

Today I gave back the key to your heart,
left it under the mat
at your front door
where the words don’t say welcome, at least not for me.

Before I walked away
I lifted out all the bookmarks
held in your body
marking the places
where I had planned to touch you again.

I swept away the well wishes,
and good intentions off the porch.
The safety and borders and boundaries
that made where you live good for me
cleared with some use of the broom.

I gathered up
the parts of me you had thrown in the yard.
I found the key to my own heart,
tangled amongst the violets growing in the cracks on the step.

The house seems empty to me
dead and lonely somehow.
Love used to live there
and now only strangers do.