It’s many things; funny, beautiful, inconvenient, sad.

This morning it was waking when the front door clicks shut,
to realise she’s leaving like the last ship
pulling away from shore.
There’s a teddy left on her side of the bed and a house
so stuffed with emptiness I can’t breathe.

It’s calling out her name and running
to the door to blink through tears
and try to memorise her face, to beg
a last cuddle before she walks into her day
and we creep back to bed
where the nightmares are waiting.