Remember? On that very first day, I warned you:

if we ever drift, if the thread finally breaks,

Go and find your joy in the distance,

Run towards the horizon, dance in the wake,

But Do not- not for a second- look back for my sake.

Because when someone wanders and then crawls back,

Tainted by the dust of their own mistakes,

When they weep, or they wither, or they finally see

The hollowed-out ghost of what used to be-

I am not longer the harbor. I am no longer the sea.

I don’t meet them halfway,

I don’t walk thr same path twice.

I don’t offer the warmth of second sacrifice.

I simply dissolve. I vanish from the view.

I become a stranger to the “me”that knew “you”.

I turn to marble. I turn to flint.

I turn to bone.

To survive your return. I have become Stone.