THE LAST PAGE FIRST

Title: The Last Page First

We said goodbye like people who had run out of ways
to hold on.
No shouting, no breaking things—
just a quiet surrender
folded between us.

By then, love had thinned.
It sat between our words,
tired, almost unrecognizable.
Your eyes no longer searched for me,
and mine had already learned
how to look away.

Before that, we tried—
God, we tried.
We stitched apologies into our nights,
wore forgiveness like borrowed clothes,
hoping it would finally fit.
But something kept slipping through,
something neither of us could name.

Go back a little further—
to when distance first grew teeth.
We laughed, yes,
but it came with pauses,
with questions we never asked aloud.
Your hand in mine felt familiar,
but no longer certain.

Earlier still—
we were reckless with forever.
We spoke it easily,
like time was ours to command.
Every moment felt endless,
every touch a promise
we believed without doubt.

And at the start—
before endings had meaning—
you smiled, and I stayed.
I laughed, and you listened.
Two strangers,
careless and open,
stepping into something
we thought would never fade.

We didn’t know then
that love could run backwards—
from everything
to almost nothing.

©® Coker Favour A.