A EULOGY

i couldn’t leave you

so i left myself instead

///

it wasn’t hard

identities can always be replaced

when they stop being useful

///

i traded art back for writing

loose-leaf for coffee

sobriety for vodka for whiskey

///

i left my name

buried like a dead dog

under your balcony

///

the thing that was me-with-you

couldn’t exist alone so i broke

its bones and left it bleeding

on the carpet of our bedroom

///

with the plants and the cat and

our history

shriveled and starved

and forgotten.