Parts of Us

Dear Person of the Past,

I thought you should know

Don’t leave

Are the two words I wish you said

Instead of letting me walk away so easily

Instead of acting like nothing ever happened

Instead of pretending we’re perfect strangers

In a not-so-perfect world

Because we’re not strangers

We’re so much more than that

But it seems as if “strangers” is the only way to

Describe us nowadays

I feel as if I don’t even know you anymore

Partly my fault, yes

But you don’t want to share yourself with me

You’re too scared

And I am too

It’s hard to welcome in the parts of you that’ll hurt me

But it’s also hard to shut out all parts of you altogether

Because after a while

Parts of you become parts

Of me

And I still have parts of you in me

But I don’t have you anymore

So those parts of you are slowly

Fading away

And I have nothing to replace them with

You have become the void in my life

And I don’t know what to do

How to act

How to feel

How to live

When there are parts of me missing,

When there are parts of me missing you

So since you won’t say it

Because maybe you can’t

Or maybe you’re too scared

I’ll say it

Don’t leave

Don’t walk away so easily

Stop acting like nothing ever happened

Stop pretending we’re perfect strangers

In a not-so-perfect world

Because we’re not strangers

We’re so much more than that

Sincerely,

A Person Living in the Past