You Never Got My Goodbye

A cycle of poems «The Last Letter I Burned Was My Own»

The phone still rings in dead of night -
Your voice cuts through my hollowed light.
I left no note, no final word…
Just silence screaming what I deferred.

I slammed the door, I burned the bridge,
Let pride drown love in bitter ditch.
But every dream still drags me back -
To the moment I went off track.

You never got my goodbye,
Just echoes in a blood-red sky.
I vanished like a thief in flame,
Left you calling out my name.
No closure, no last embrace -
Just ghosts inside this hollow space.
Now I’m chained to what I stole:
Your unanswered, aching soul.

You stood there crying in the rain,
While I drowned truth in whiskey pain.
Said, “If you go, don’t look behind” -
So I left you lost, and lost my mind.
No “I’m sorry,” no “wait for me,”
Just engine roar and shattered plea.
I thought I’d find myself out there…
But all I found was empty air.

I carved your name in rusted steel,
Wore your memory like a wound that’s real.
The road was long, the nights were cold -
But worse was knowing I left you sold
To silence, doubt, and endless “why?”
Because you never got my goodbye.

You never got my goodbye,
Just echoes in a blood-red sky.
I vanished like a thief in flame,
Left you calling out my name.
No closure, no last embrace -
Just ghosts inside this hollow space.
Now I’m chained to what I stole:
Your unanswered, aching soul.

I heard you moved, changed your name,
Tried to scrub me from your frame.
But in your eyes - when they appear
In photos friends still hold too near -
There’s still that question, soft and raw:
“Did he ever love me at all?”
And God forgive me - I did. I do.
But words died in my throat like truth.

I’d give my bones, my breath, my fire,
To stand before you one hour -
Not to stay, not to plead…
Just to say what I couldn’t speak:
“You were worth more than my fear.
I was broken - I’m still here.
And I’m sorry… I’m so sorry…
You never got my goodbye.”

You never got my goodbye -
Just thunder where my heart should lie.
I fled like hell was at my heels,
Left you bleeding, left you real.
No mercy in my coward’s flight -
Just endless dark, no healing light.
Now I scream it to the void:
“I loved you… and I destroyed.”

So if you hear this song someday,
Through static, time, or miles away -
Know this truth beneath the cry:
I never said goodbye…
Because I never wanted to.
You were my always.
My undo.
My love…
My silent, shattered…
Goodbye.