I put these feelings away

some time ago, where I thought

they’d stay where I left them.

 

But they felt no compunction

to stay were they’d been put.

 

In my youth, when you were letting me go

so subtly I didn’t notice until it was over.

 

The terrible act of love, having our dog

put to sleep from his suffering.

 

Hoping the day before her last one was a good one

for my mother, and that she’d finished a good book just in time.

 

But then I see an elderly couple holding hands,

or our young puppy finally learning to pee outside,

and I see I have new friends eager to help me

put the old wounds back where I’d like them to stay.