When I have gone, as gone I soon will be

You can decide I was a coward, or

A wise man who took his own measure, free

To leave you as he saw fit, the front door

Closing the last of it, but such is fate:

You make choices and then decide they must

Be followed, as heart can sometimes stand and wait

For brain to resolve heartbreak or else bust

Before it stirs itself, to move, to walk

Away, and not look back, though regret does

Impede the speed of egress, and talk

Of moving on makes me forget I was

Still reading the book, when it closed at last  

And when I shelved it, letting past be past

03/03/2003