No Farewell
By John Herlihy

The worst farewell is the no farewell;
You just left when you no longer wished to stay.
The worst good-bye is the no good-bye;
You just vanished in this cruel, inhuman way.

As if what we had meant nothing at all;
As if what we had never existed at all.
One day your presence there, taken for granted;
The next day your absence there, no longer granted.

Your fault, your actions often lacked wit;
My fault, a suit I wore that never truly fit.
No one’s fault, a reaction that refuses to sit;
Everyone’s fault, we have fallen into a fiery pit.

My heart an empty cave where something has died;
My heart made of stone where no emotion survived.
Let’s forget about this, now and every night thereafter;
To remember means nothing but misery ever after.

Whereas once your eyes glittered with renown,
Eyes now overshadowed with the face of a frown.
Whereas once your hand and mine intertwined,
My hand now idle and empty, mine only mine.

No farewell will endure by no remembering,
Enter ye then the realm of eternal forgetting.
Like having a piece of the night in one’s heart,
Now fallen face down its darkness to impart.

Some things are tied up, tucked away, sewn;
Some things, they are better left on their own.
I now bid you so long, fare thee well, good-bye;
I ask no more questions, and no longer wonder why.