Good-bye Wasn't Necessary?

                                 She knew she didn't have
                                         to say "good-bye"
                                            She had taught me about
                                                the blue-myrtle quickly spreading
                                                      to cover the ground around it.
                                 I had learned that the tiny
                                           white wind flower would bloom
                                                around the same time every spring.
                                                    I knew the taste of spruce gum
                                                         and where to find trailing arbutus.
                                  I knew that the small pool lay undisturbed
                                             except for the first leaf of fall that lay
                                                   on the top, and that only the shy animals
                                                            are the only ones that come for a cool drink.
                                  Some secrets she kept for herself.  I'll never know
                                               about the "blood on the moon," or who
                                                    was "the crone" who watched her smoke
                                                              the pot alone"