THE WEIGHT OF SMALL THINGS

It wasn't one big thing

That's the part

I keep forgetting

A cup left by the sink A coat behind the door Your

name still in my phone Though I don't call anymore A ticket

in a drawer From somewhere we once went Half a sentence in

my head I never got to send

Nothing heavy

Nothing loud

Just little things Piling up

It's the weight of small things That bends the back A thousand

quiet ounces You never think to count It's the weight of small

things That pulls you down Not one great disaster Just everything You

didn't put down

The hallway light left on

At three-fifteen again

A chair I never moved

Because you used to sit there then

The keys beside the bowl A shirt behind the bed All these

ordinary objects With nowhere else to live but in my head

Nothing broken

Nothing gone

Still somehow

Something's wrong It's the weight of small things That bends the back

A thousand quiet ounces You never think to count It's the weight

of small things That pulls you down Not one great disaster Just

everything You didn't put down

So I started with the cup Then the ticket

Then the shirt

Then your number

ONE BY ONE I put them down

ONE BY ONE Nothing made a sound

ONE BY ONE The room got light ONE BY ONE I slept

that night

It was the weight of small things

I carried around

A thousand quiet ounces I never

thought to count

It was the weight of small things

Until it wasn't Until the floor Could hold them Instead of me

The hallway light is off.

I noticed.