Hug - Meghan Jacoby

The front steps of the porch are cold, even in the summer heat. My foot catches, faltering, and you grab my arm and right me. People are bustling around us, suitcases rolling mournfully over the pavement below. There are cries and shouts and regrets in the air around us, and we stand in the shade, watching the world go by. My arms are at my side, heavy with the weight of memories within my bag. I have stood on these steps, sat on the railings and laid under the stars so many times. There are all these people, but this place seems empty now.


I look over at you, your eyes scanning the crowds. How do I say goodbye? I don’t know what to do or what to say. If only there was enough time to write one more letter, one more way to put down what I felt, one more way to tell each other silently that this was true, this world existed. This world was crumbling around us, not a scrap of paper to be found. You had saved me. I like to think I saved a part of you too. The wind blows and I can feel it wrap around me like you arms have so many times, Irish Spring soap and soft cotton shirts.

This has been my everlasting summer.

You turn to me, and caught staring, I blush. Your face reddens at my own, and we stare. I know that this is so much more than goodbye. This is the end of an era. I will return to my place, and you to yours. I will miss you, I think, like a heart misses a soul. My own heart beats painfully as you put it back into my chest. It will never be whole again.

If I could stop time, I’d end it here before we broke apart as you reached for me, nestling me inside of you, a chin atop my head as you murmur things to me. They are taken by the wind, this murmuring goodbyes and the wrap around us in chains we’ll never break. I do not need to hear them, they are branded into me. I press my face to your shoulder, taking it all in. I am warm, and safe, and you have made me able to say goodbye. You are strong, and now, so I am.



Your arms grip me tightly, and you look at me, into my eyes. You look into every part of me.

Because of you, I am now strong enough to look back.



I love you, I say, quietly, yet it resounds within us both.



Goodbye.