One By One

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

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.