transience, and you

I walked with you from room to room
watched your every step with all my heart
sauntered up every lane and alley and street corner
beside you, stitching memories together
to rein me in, to keep me from falling apart

when you’d be gone, for I knew you would leave
It was only a matter of weeks, then days,
and now the final few moments slipping past
Please Sir, can I have some more?
I am not yet ready for you to go away

And now I walk alone from room to room
saunter up every lane and alley and street corner
I will the ghost of your memories to haunt me
but nothing, nothing at all springs to mind
only a slow visceral grind that breaks me into splinters

for nothing of you remains in these places anymore
no stray wisps of hair, no songs you hummed,
no threads from your frayed clothes,
only dust motes twirling under the insouciant sun
because you are gone, as if you had never come.