Mary Wilkinson

This Is Not a Love Poem

You see our goodbyes are gradual

graceful steps of a life

passing by without heed

until one day you walk

out the door in your carefree way

and don’t stop to say goodbye.

What if I were not here when you returned

expecting to see me drowning in potato

skins at the kitchen sink or jotting stray

thoughts onto a page? Would you be

concerned or would you simply look

out beyond to the yellowing trees,

the wet reeds and the crooked stone

walls, call out my name, never doubting

I’d not hear you? 

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Mary Wilkinson is published in Poetry Ireland Review, Crannóg, The Irish Times, Books Ireland, Listowel Writers’ Week Winners Anthologies. Her writing has been broadcast on RTE and Lyric FM. She is a Pushcart Prize Nominee and her novella, Quotidian, was published in September with Reflex Press. She lives in Galway.