You crop and delete the pieces of him
from your life slowly but with perseverance,
until two years later there’s nothing left.
There’s no new recipes stuck to the fridge,
no Heinekens left on its shelves.
No more expensive coffee
taking up room in cupboards,
no soya milk stains on the counters.
You haven’t found stray dog hairs
in the butter for a while now.
You never will again. There are things
that cost too much money to replace.
You burn them down anyway. You hover
over objects in your house. Move from kitchen
to bedroom to bathroom until your life together
is ash, small enough to leave with the wind.
Ava Patel won Prole Magazine’s 2021 pamphlet competition with debut pamphlet ‘Dusk in Bloom’. She’s been published in webzines (London Grip; Ink, Sweat and Tears; Atrium; Porridge) and magazines (South Bank Poetry; Orbis; SOUTH; Dream Catcher; New Welsh Reader, The Seventh Quarry). She runs an Instagram poetry page: @ava_poetics.