Melancholy in Farewell
By John Herlihy

“So this be the end of it,’
He said with a crease of sorrow.
“I could say it as much,”
She replied with a shadow of a frown.
“Enough then to say goodbye,”
A glance at her nails her stoic reply
Adding cryptically, “You know the reason why.”
“Indeed I do,” he grunted roughly.
Sunlight slanted down diagonally in shafts.
Summertime umbrellas shaded the customers.

They both continued to sit across from each other,
Sipping the dregs of their coffee cups in silence.
But no silence was there to surround them,
Sounds sometimes have more meaning than words.
This long silent stretch of awkwardness
And all its attendant circumstances were subdued
By the touch of spoons on china, plates laid.
Sirens could be heard in the near distance;
Sickness wails and hastens to find a lasting cure.
Pigeon wings flutter and create a stir of wind;
Life seems to go on amid this continuing whirr.
The click of heels resonates arrival and departure,
A child’s smiling face could be seen in the aperture.
A waiter whistled unconsciously as the tune carried,
A couple nearby chatted like birds, nearly married.

The hum of chatting customers blended as murmur
In chorus to the lingering melancholy of this farewell.
Silence meets the moment when nothing is left to say.
She gave her handbag a decisive click, arose and left.
He would never see her again and it felt like theft.
As she departed, he heard the rustle of her skirt.
Later, he would begin to feel something like hurt.