Disengage

"I guess this is where we say 'bye'"
You informed me today as if reading your lines
from a script as the wind filled the yard by your place
with the promise of rain cold and hard when tomorrow
we wake up no longer as friends

I stumbled while shaking your hand and I knew then
that we were already leave-taking the bits of our souls
we had loaned to each other --
that day I remembered a chess game while bees played
and drowned in our colas

You played some tunes loud from that van
that you sold for a song when it stranded you,
after you filled it with trinkets and treasures
unearthed from the flea markets all over town where one time
I believe that I spotted it -- empty

And today after all of the laughter and brotherhood
talking of Jesus and how much he meant to us
now that it's over we call ourselves "lairs" and
call it a day as you, hurting inside (I can tell)
leave me stranded to show how it feels

I'd have followed you now, like some puppy, except
that I know now we've traded our hearts back for
stones rolled too tightly to seal in the stench of our
friendship that died when we looked for too much
of ourselves in each other

Bo Gordy-Stith © 1996