Poet’s Note: A poem written in May 2021 largely inspired by the famous song ‘Hello’ by Adele. But this story is about friendship and the difficulties there are when hundreds of kilometres of land are in between friends. Good friendships overcome that, but what about shaky ones?

Hello.
I dare ask, how have you been in the past many years?
It has been too long since I heard your voice.
You must have hated me because I didn’t stay.
Only now I realised that I’d had a choice.

Hello.
I still remember the words that you threw at me,
The last look on your face as you spat my abhorrent name.
As I had looked away at that, blinking back tears, so did you.
And even though you hadn’t seen me, I had hung my head in shame.

Hello.
I never should have meant what I had said.
I doubt you know that now I’m drowning in regret.
And here comes dancing that epiphany, with pen and paper in hand.
That you were not wrong, and I was not right.

But if I’d stayed, would things have been alright?

Hello.
Don’t you see that it hurts?
Every time you ignore me when I’m right there.
Talking about the things we don’t have in common.
And I walk away in realization that you no longer care.

Hello.
Did those inside jokes mean nothing to you?
The ones we had guffawed at when we were young.
And now look at us, so far apart.
And your loathsome eyes that had once grinned with fun.

So here is something I should have said a long while back.
But you hurt me more that I could ever have.
I’m sorry, for the distance I put between us,
I’m sorry, for the things I had said when I was mad.

Hello.
Our friendship doesn’t have to end unless you want it to.
Just know that I would do anything just to see you smile again.
My words might get lost in time and fade away, but our memories won’t.
You can try your hardest to forget, but I promise I won’t.

So I guess this is our last goodbye.