Poem: Don’t Disappear!

Don’t disappear, you said—
as if vanishing were easy,
as if people don’t fade in quiet ways
long before they’re gone.

I’ve seen it happen—
in half-finished sentences,
in messages typed, then erased,
in the slow dimming of someone’s laugh.

So I’ll stay a little louder,
leave the light on a little longer,
plant my voice in the room
like something with roots.

If I drift, call me back—
not with urgency,
but with the kind of patience
that reminds the tide to return.

Because disappearing
is rarely a single step—
it’s a series of small permissions
we forget we gave.

And maybe staying
is the same—
a quiet decision,
made again and again.

Thank-you for reading.

Brenda Marie