'A Time to Forget' by Aditi Surana

In the pause before the next song plays,

In the five seconds before the next Netflix episode airs,

In the last count of the yoga teacher’s call to breathe out,

When all the air has already been sucked out—

While waiting to cross on the divider,

For the slowing-down vehicle of a kind driver,

In the moment swimming, when I come up to gulp air,

In the gap that separates a glance from a stare,

In the space between the sky lighting up and thunder’s grunting thud,

In the pause between the phone ringing and seeing who’s calling,

In the time writing poems when I’ve been thinking for a while,

And just before I decide to let it be—to let it not rhyme,

While I decide the last line of the poem,

Wondering if I should just repeat the first one—

In each of those moments,

In each of these moments,

I vow (while thinking of you)

To never think of you ever again.