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Afterwards

June 19, 2022 8 Comments

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I tell people I “lost”you, as if I left you at the busy bar or let go of your hand in the airport terminal. As if you’d fallen off the table and slipped through the gap between the floorboards or leapt from my pocket at the end of the garden. Tucked yourself beneath the sofa, forgetting to come out again.

I tell them you slipped away, as if I could pluck you from that gap in the floor, pull you out from the brambles. Like a jigsaw piece you’d surface again, as if you were always there, just temporarily misplaced.

By Elle Symonds

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Helen C says

    June 19, 2022 at 7:04 am

    Great take on the euphism.

    Reply
  2. Pamela R says

    June 19, 2022 at 7:34 am

    Fantastic images that expose the euphemism and give clarity and feeling to the reader. Nice job!

    Reply
  3. Mary A Gorman says

    June 19, 2022 at 8:04 am

    Wonderful beginning for a story so well written

    Reply
  4. Derek says

    June 19, 2022 at 8:59 am

    I lost my parents somewhere along the way. It hadn’t occurred to me what a silly way to put it that is. Until now.

    Reply
  5. Joan Reed says

    June 19, 2022 at 6:46 pm

    Much feeling!

    Reply
  6. Liz says

    June 20, 2022 at 1:05 pm

    What grief embodied in those few apt words.

    Reply
  7. Yvonne clarke says

    June 25, 2022 at 7:23 am

    Powerful and moving

    Reply
  8. Jim Anderson says

    June 28, 2022 at 3:50 pm

    The expression has bothered me and you demonstrate why in a poignant way.

    Reply

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