My old college roommates

oh you don’t know me

you don’t know me anymore
anyways

my closest friends understand
that they cannot understand
(and they thank god they cannot understand)

but they check in on me
and drop me a line
on anniversaries and holidays and hard days
and they use her name
because i’ve asked them
to use her name

and the days drip by
and months pass
and our gulf widens
and i miss her
and they miss me

but we all give the earth permission
to shift its plates beneath us
and we grant Time its proper place
at the head of our broken table

blessing memories that were once happily made
before the after
ripped me away.