Time to Go

Your belongings are
scattered haphazardly
in random patterns across the floor.
You stayed longer than expected

patches of scalp show through your hair
shadows under your eyes make you look old
independence may have been an ideal in our youth

but today it is no longer true
but you seem to be satisfied with nothing
like a leaf floating in the air without direction
going where the wind sends you.

I want you to use your wings and choose where to fly
landing on solid surfaces to make your own way
it is time for you to go.

You leave after our conversation,
slipping silently out the door
your shoulders hunched over, you look broken,
not my intention.

I want you to find that place
where you know how to live
to create a future you want
rather than existing like a parasite on a stem
sucking life out of the host.

One of us will die
and if I don’t release you
I will not survive.