The Loyal Echo

Your name shows up in stupid places

a barista’s playlist,

the back of a cereal box,

The “Y” street sign I never noticed before.

﹁﹂

I’ll be fine for hours, honestly.

Then a spoon clinks a glass

and my mind goes, oh—

like a dog hearing its leash.

﹁﹂

I don’t even say your name out loud.

It stays behind my teeth,

a smooth stone I keep turning

until it warms.

﹁﹂

At the riverwalk, the water keeps doing

What it does best: returning.

It brings leaves, it brings foam,

It brings the same old insistence.

﹁﹂

I watch the current and think,

that’s how you live in me—

not dramatic, not tragic,

just constant.

﹁﹂

Sometimes I’m angry at the echo.

Sometimes I’m grateful.

(That switch happens fast, sorry.)

I buy a coffee I don’t want

just to have something to hold.

﹁﹂

A couple passes, laughing,

and for a second I feel nothing,

which is almost a miracle.

﹁﹂

Then the wind shifts,

And it sounds like your voice

trying to say my name back.

﹁﹂

I keep walking.

The tide in my chest keeps coming in

as if it never got the message.