LEAVE-TAKING Poem by Alexis de Roode

Today I broke up
with my immediate superior.
I asked him to sit down a moment,
took a deep breath,
and pulled the pin from the hand grenade.
First, I saw astonishment on his face and then,
to my surprise, genuine pain.
I saw splinters in his eyes.
I saw how he had lost his whole department
in the space of a month.

Once, after breaking up with someone in a room
that turned into a grave,
I made the decision:
I will never end a relationship again.
And now I saw I had done it all the same.

I saw how he stayed behind alone.
Alone with the photocopier.
The pain, the genuine pain
in the eyes of my immediate superior.

I also realized that being a superior
is an underrated form of love.