Our names are carved into the old tree in the backyard.

I put them there when we first moved in.

Everything was so easy back then.

So simple back then.

You were so quiet.

So meek.

It’s why I fell in love with you.

It’s what I loved most about you.

But then you opened your mouth.

And lie after lie spewed forth.

You have to understand.

You must know why.

I was just trying to remind you.

But you can be so stubborn.

Is this how we got here?

My hands at your throat.

Your knife between my ribs?

Is that how I got here?

Buried beneath the old oak tree.

Our names forever carved above my head?

As my flesh whithers and melts

I can’t let you go

The shadow at my back

Pulling me down

I can’t let you go

I won’t let you go.

Author’s Note:

This is the second part to the poem posted yesterday titled, “Everlasting.” Told from the perspective of the not so dearly departed significant other. The haunted and the haunter.