September 17, 2023 - Rahil Najafabadi’s “One of the Letters You Sent”

Is gone, like the others, but I still kept the ribbon.
There is a bend in the road from where we walked­­––
the past is not smooth just as it is rough now.
The colors were soft blue and pink and the words
melted away with teardrops and raindrops and time
being spent away from my vision. It’s fine to worry,
but the past does not exist. All I can see is now,
and the unclear window catching some leaves
and nests of birds by the sill. I didn’t want to hear them,
but when I thought it could be you, their song sounded
sweet. So many windows and the birds stuck by me,
only to fly away when I start to love the song at dawn.