with a dear friend, I mention I’d rather keep talking than say, goodbye,
so she offers, Did you know in Cherokee there is no word for goodbye?
We are connected—one by the Creator—and thus never leave one another.
When we part, we say, when we meet again, always when, never if, & never goodbye.
It sounds so final— farewell, so long—like a severing, a parting, or losing
a limb, rather than loosing the spirit to quest for beauty, for good, by and by,
until we can hold the same space. Even in the end, when we pass, the door opens
to a new realm, a new beginning, something fresh. Even in death, saying goodbye
is too strong, too final, too much like the trickster trying to hide his stygian being
under feathers colored by sky, by sea. Screeching, he does not sing; he calls, goodbye.
Jay McCoy | Lexington