Hey y’all. On Day 21 of National Poetry Month, the prompt is to write a poem in which you first recall someone you used to know closely but are no longer in touch with, then a job you used to have but no longer do, and then a piece of art that you saw once and that has stuck with you over time. Finally, close the poem with an unanswerable question. Here’s my poem:

Day 21 - GHOSTED

By Farah Lawal Harris

If more R&B songs focused on 

the breakups of friends rather than lovers,

I would’ve been more prepared for you exiting my life.

I think there’s a passage in the Bible,

something about wounds from a sincere friend

being better than kisses from an enemy.

Does this mean you were actually sincere

since the hole you left is still here?

Or maybe it’s not wholly a hole, but fear.

Maybe I wasn’t who I thought I was.

I didn’t know who I was, that’s clear.

I put a hold on my dream career,

raised hundreds of thousands for organizations 

while living check to check.

Anxiety was daily,

scared one mistake would get me fired.

Maybe I was too tired to call and make up.

I don’t know the first thing about

platonic breakups.

But I do know who I am now.

I am a friend worth singing about.

I am memorable like Carrie Mae Weems’ Kitchen Table Series.

My life has so many still photos you’ll never see,

ones worth staring at in awe in museum halls you’ll never walk.

Maybe this is how it was meant to be.

But occasionally I wonder:

If more R&B songs focused on friendship,

would you not have ghosted me?