Long Gone

After the last time
I backed down the icy driveway
you headed someplace warm, third world
and unstable
and I fled South
throwing mittens, scarves and wooly hats
out the car window
saying goodbye
to all that was
frozen and snow and smoke and loss
as the grassed greened up
on the side of the road.

I worked and slept.
I walked the sand beach
night after night
talking to the wind,
the ocean.

And I don’t even know
what reminded me today
a slant of shadow on the lawn
a song
drifting out
some stranger’s open window?