once upon a time
an old woman
stopped
a young girl
and asked her
if she wanted to know
what was going to happen
next

how do you tell
asked the young girl
who had eyes
the colour of rain
unseeing

the old woman
lifted up the young girl's fingers
to trace her smile
i read about you
once
she said
her voice
rasping

a feather fell in the young girl's
raven hair
and the old woman
picked it up
and put it in her own

who wrote about me
asked the blind girl
without realizing
what the old woman
had just done

the old woman
kissed her smooth cheek
clouds forming
in her eyes
and left
with all of
her uncertainty

you are like the song
i keep replaying
and can't stop
hearing
the words too precious
too fall from my lips

so i hum them
instead
the way the rain did
above us
that one day
and i smile
when people ask
what i'm singing
because i don't think
they'll ever know

if i could say goodbye again
i would
do it differently

i would
bow down in front of you
because now i know
so much
because of the heartbreak
you caused

i would kiss your hand
as the sun set
and the moon rose
and i would slip away
before you woke
(even though i was drawn to you
when you were asleep)

i would
still write you
that letter
you got after you swore
never to want me again
but i would have
written
'goodbye'
at the end
instead of letting the word
die on my lips
too weak to make it
onto the page

so that we could have never
said hello
again
so soon