Poetry by Laura Tavasse: temporarily not available

temporarily not available

I don’t know
how to part with the dead.
most
just slip away through a back door
when they suddenly
go.
no candle will hold them
no flower on a grave,
and I can’t take
leave.
it still takes me
a hot second to summon tears,
and I still haven’t deleted
their phone numbers.
maybe there will be
messages, maybe they are just
a call away. maybe
it means that still
we are, we are.