so long..

I said goodbye at a railway station.
We waited holding hands
and used words equally cliched.
I never liked platforms -
the smell lingers on.
Of urinals, food gone bad and
the stale breath of the homeless
fast asleep on dirty ground.
But apart from the smell and sounds
that I don’t like and could -
like any intelligent person
(my mother repeatedly tells me) -
choose to ignore,
what I could not bear was
scenes from my life being on display
to the platform across the tracks.
I wish there was a way to go away
without saying farewell.