A brother’s goodbye is like lightning;
A flash of anger then he’s gone.
Fiery words, and with one strike
He severed what has already been worn

The words slipped from his lips,
exiling me and my kind
Does he even understand what he’s fighting for?
To exile himself to an island.

A father’s goodbye stretches calendars
forever and in silence.
no need for words.
An unspoken cure
that distance prevents verbal violence

But goodbye with you, Grandma,
my Grandma…
it will echo through my mind for eternity.
It will haunt my soul with every step,
Because I want you to be free with me.

My goodbye is stained in unspoken grief
And haunted by the brokenness
of a family that never had a chance to heal,
where empathy was a stranger
or happenstance.