A Letter to Someon
Gone
Kirby Long
To Someone Who’s Already Gone,
Somebody yelled at me today on the street.
I just stared ahead and let the words pass. I don’t
know if I miss you, I’m not sure of anything anymore.
I just feel like Styrofoam, static, and cold
and empty of any meaningful purpose other than
taking up space. When I held your hand, soft and
withered and warm, it was like static rattling my
bones, reminding me of a moment that’s already
long gone, a time I can’t return to. I’ve stepped
away now. I don’t want you to understand the shake
in my wrists or redness in my eyes. I can’t make
out what you’re saying. You only speak a long dead
tongue now and it’s lost on me. You speak in old
memories flashing and fading in and out of your
delicate consciousness and it brings me to tears.
I want to scream something that both of us will
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