“The Houseplant: Lingering”

Limerence Reverie, Act III Tunis

I chose this plant, and with that choice came a quiet

responsibility

a commitment to sustain what I decided to bring into my life.

Tending to something you chose, something you insisted upon.

There is also a quiet, lingering longing

Wanting to stay longer than expected,

Being reluctant to leave, delaying its own disappearance.

Being very slow, saying wait repeatedly don’t go yet.

This space lives between presence and absence,

where care remains, where love persists,

even when what it belongs to feels distant and gone.

And maybe this too

that you do not abandon to ruin

what you once chose to care for.

Maybe you stay.

Even in the lingering.

And the irony of all the time and effort you put into it even though the leaves are falling and it might want to die, the presence and beauty of the plant still lingers all around.