I say goodbye to my lovers in a train carriage

I know it’s over when I picture the train carriage
it’s an old-fashioned carriage with burgundy velvet seats
a little room in my memory.

The outgoing lover sits opposite
it’s always a clear day and we never pass any stations,
gives us time for the ceremony of endings.
I might need longer for this one.

My new lover offers me a tea, I say “yes please”
in a polite and confident tone. We seem to fit,
I can never quite make out his face.

The old lover and I have civil conversation, remark on
the coincidence we’re in the same carriage,
on all accounts we’re both doing well.

It comes time to say goodbye. Until we meet again instead?
No, it’s goodbye this time
and now that I’ve said it, it’s said.

Satya Bosman is the founder and co-editor of the Black Cat Poetry Press. Her poetry was commended in the Kent and Sussex Poetry Society Folio competition in 2023. She has been featured in several publications, most recently 14 Magazine,  Fawn Press and Dreich.