Where Does Love Go

Did it evaporate
with the last remaining traces of his scent

or with the smoke from the cigarette,
the last from the crushed packet he left behind?

She couldn’t stomach breakfast,
and there were hours to cross until the island of lunch,

and a rainy afternoon to get through,
the rest of the day with only a stormcock

for company, its lonely song
falling like tears from the windswept wall.

The sweater he forgot
is draped on the back of a kitchen chair,

teasing her with its woolly warmth;
it doesn’t realise he’s gone, not coming back.

He’s taken love with him,
screwed up in his pocket like a used tissue,

leaving her with nothing but fading
scent and smoke, and an unwashed sweater.

Kim M. Russell, 14th April 2026

Image by Hari Krishnan S. on Unsplash

This Tuesday at the dVerse Poets Pub, I’m hosting Poetics with the question ‘Where does love go?’ My prompt is based on an email from The Marginalian, and an article in their magazine Traversal about Mary Shelley.

I found many poems written about the aftermath of love, each one different, by poets such as W.H. Auden, Stevie Smith and Audre Lorde, to name but a few.

The challenge is to write poems with the title ‘Where does love go when it goes?’ and answer it in our poems.

16 thoughts on “Where Does Love Go”

  1. Oh, wow! So many phrases/lines to love. I especially liked “island of lunch” and “He’s taken love with him,
    screwed up in his pocket like a used tissue,

    leaving her with nothing but fading
    scent and smoke, and an unwashed sweater.”

    Love it, Kim. ❤️

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  3. Pingback: Where Did Love Go? – The Tigress Awakens

  5. Wow, this is so true, when love leaves those scents do linger. Beautifully illustrated Kim. I kept thinking of that song One Less Set of Footsteps on your floor by Jim Croce while reading this one. I think it was the sweater.

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  9. He’s taken love with him, – one can feel the loss in that line. The sweater left behind is a wonderful personal touch in this poem of lost love.

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  12. Beautifully composed. And speaks to our common heart break experience from when a lover jets…lots of great lines but my fave …getting through the rest of the day with only a stormcock

    for company, its lonely song
    falling like tears from the windswept wall”

    Devastating! Well done, and awesome awesome prompt idea!

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