Your tether went slack not long ago,
though I can’t say when exactly,
the moment slipped by in silence, unnoticed,
like a cloudscape changing on a windless day.
I was sure I would feel it, so accustomed was I
to hauling your weight around after me,
such a heavy ghost, tenacious and solid,
with the kind of staying power the real you
didn’t possess, at least not for me,
not in the end.