I never said goodbye.

                          I said hello when familiar winds blew throughout the christening of the seasons. Heat simmered from the kindled leafs of Autumn, onto the morbid silence of Winter. Death surrounded the tropics, adjacent to the residing themes of the frigid hillside, where years were measured in thawed- out countenances,  that subsided from the feminine face of a young woman, which in return spread radiant light to vast depths of the ancient valley, (still blanketed in fallen snow, drifts upon drifts). Her voice echoed melodically, the broken promises of Spring. The drawn out days accumulated weight, that shattered the thin icy layers, struggling to hit bottom, then relieved by a chilly breeze.
                         I said hello when you told me of your plans to travel Europe. Sparing me the desolate months in isolation. It was there that I waited for you, in restless evenings, beside the radiator, in a dingy vacant room,  where shadows projected onto the dark corners of the tenement.
                        I prevailed for some time, maintaining my profession, exchanging broken smiles for a stranger's laughter, of drunken sprees for a simple joke or two. My fellows would conspire during my absence. The dimly- lit barroom's cluttered tables covered the sticky tiled floor with toxic solution. A temporary escape, from tedious cycles of dulled pain and late afternoons. The anticipation of her return filled the lingering gaps between the abandoned days and reckless nights.
                        I said hello to the disarray that overshadowed the sun, amidst the enduring labor of endless moons. We gradually chiseled our lifestyle way down into the warm marrow. I'd wait for her among outdoor seating arrangements to get off work.
                       I said hello to the worn furniture that aligned our dreary apartment, while sordid incandescent rays,  permeated through the decaying windows, of our fourth-story livelihood. We grew accustomed to wild nights and stale mornings, that led drastically into the unstoppable evening. We loved not ourselves, but the underlying understanding of broken boundaries, that kept us out in the cold....waiting.
                      I said hello to the decline of a lifetime, that slipped through the vulnerable cracks of my frail fingers, leaving a pit inside that would grow deeper for some time, so deep I couldn't find the surface, where blood did dwell, pumping the remarkable truth of living, where I only lied, only now, it's time to say goodbye.