Expression
The meeting ended in the room. Not in my mind.
Everyone else moved on. Part of me stayed there.
Everyone stood up.
The room emptied.
The conversation moved on.
Reality continued.
Yet part of me remained there.
I replay a comment.
I rethink an answer.
I revisit a moment that lasted seconds.
The meeting is over.
Part of me is still attending it.
Sometimes I imagine what I should have said.
Sometimes I wonder what they meant.
Sometimes I replay a moment that nobody else is thinking about anymore.
Not because the meeting is still happening.
Because part of me never fully left it.
The strange thing is how normal this feels.
The calendar says the meeting ended.
The body says the meeting ended.
The room says the meeting ended.
Yet the mind keeps finding reasons to return.
The cost is rarely dramatic.
The meeting lasts thirty minutes.
It occupies the next three hours.
Work ends.
Recovery waits.
The evening arrives.
Part of me never does.
Most of the time, nothing is wrong.
Nothing needs fixing.
Nothing needs solving.
The meeting is simply over.
Part of me hasn’t caught up yet.
Sometimes the first step is noticing the difference.
The meeting ended in the room.
It doesn’t need to keep happening in me.