Goodbye

I heard it
Lingering behind the words
Maybe you weren't even aware of it
But goodbye has been there for a while
And I pretended I didn't hear it
I knew you would leave but not yet
Not now
Maybe I was hearing things
And then I wasn't
You were saying goodbye
With all of the goodbye trappings and fixings
With all of the gentle letdown available
The self-blame
The great things I could and should do
They were all goodbye
You said they weren't
But I'm an expert in goodbye.
I know what I heard.