Time Poem by Danielle Nguyen

When this started, you were tall
You were all the way up there, a statue.

I climbed.

You keep going, and you forget that you grow
and when I looked around, I noticed -
I could meet you, now.
Instead of reaching and grasping fingertips
neck aching from gazing sky-high
we were hand-to-hand, eyes to mouth
and my legs had stretched to place me there.

Being big is only relative to how little you are.
Getting this tall, tall like you
you can see the whole world from up here.

And with these strong new legs,
I stepped away
Walking new strides
Feeling this new body
Looking back and seeing the way
you shrunk in the horizon.

My last words were as subtle as
how concaves and convexes curved
in the most strategic of places
Arches discreet like the fade of autumn to winter
This change ungraspable like a forgotten song.
Once we met eyes-to-eyes
you saw the way mine said,
”I don’t love you anymore.”

You heard the way my steps said,
”Goodbye.”