You were on page 72.
I tried to read it for you but
I couldn't get past that dog-eared page.
Plus your clothes were still in the dryer.
I couldn't wash them again for a long time after that no matter
how much I wore them.
There’s a hair on the soap in the shower,
how could your hair be there when you're gone?
Then there’s your toothbrush.
It was brand new, and everyone knows you keep a toothbrush
for three months, so how could a toothbrush
outlive you?
I can't understand
why you didn't fix the towel rack,
the one that we knocked down when
we made love up against the wall and
after we finished
you started your new book but
you only got to page 72.
Elle Becker is a writer and speaker. Published in Prevention magazine, ACPA’s The Chronicle, Five on the Fifth, Twenty-Two Twenty-Eight, The Mighty, and other literary publications. She writes essays, humour, poetry, articles, and fiction. She loves all dogs, good books, cheese, and nice humans, in that order.