और बता

Sometimes I think
that all I've learnt
in these thirty years
is different ways of saying
goodbye.

Great catching up,
or good to see you
how's the wife
or the boss
are you still in-
ah, yes, of course,
you mentioned that, I think,
but I forgot-

or the ones that require
a heart pressed by stone,
the clean break, the reset bone-
what didn't kill you
made you stronger
and you survived,
just a little older-


and then that other-
in silence left,
but there's the space
that speaks instead
the outstretched hand,
the empty bed.

-> For S, who gave me a title (and a poem).