[poetry] I Did Not Stop To Say Goodbye

I wrote this poem after returning from my Rome semester (so, mid-December 2008) and realizing that I hadn’t said “goodbye” to anyone when leaving – not to my classmates, most of whom I would see again in five weeks, and not to my professors either, who I may well never see again. I haven’t decided whether or not I regret that.

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I Did Not Stop To Say Goodbye

I did not stop to say goodbye
I wonder why, I wonder why
We may not meet again, you sigh
I wonder why, I wonder why
I walked away without a care
No look, no tear, like unaware
Perhaps before we meet we’ll die
Yet still I did not say goodbye

A stream does not bid rocks adieu
Downriver it finds more and new
Each droplet strikes ten thousand stones
They touch, but are at heart alone
Like stream, not story, I confess
Each interaction meaningless
And so I did not say goodbye
I wonder why, I wonder why