Endings

Scott Henry Photography

I am learning to appreciate endings
Not just the happy kind
And not the kind that screams,
“Sequel!” or “their lives go as such”

But endings

True—perhaps upsetting—but
Authentic endings
In an age in which our phones are always open
We get so very little closure

Except silence

As a teenager, I did not know
That no one would call me to say that
I was not being considered for that job at the market
Their answer was silence

I followed up

And was told that my application
Was more or less in a wastebasket
Like the messages I had sent a stupid boy
Who considered me not worth meeting

In the movies

I watched as a child, with my mother
There were no unhappy endings
She didn’t allow those in our house
I remember watching one with her

“Funny Girl”

And sitting in shock as the credits rolled
At having witnessed something so crushing
That couldn’t be the ending, could it?
I lived my life in similar denial

Horrified by goodbyes

And now that I am older, I have learned
The things that end make the way for better beginnings
I found a job that wanted to hire me on sight
I texted a man who asked to meet me after a day
(And we married after less than two years)
I’m in college where every semester brings new hellos and goodbyes
I have learned to embrace them each for the way they help shape me

And now I must end this piece
—With apologies for its structure—
Conclusively; for it is a whole.
Anticipating the next beginning

Scott Henry Photography