Much is said of the first kiss. But what about the last kiss?

The guitar lies by the wayside after fearlessly strumming a song that was written about me.

It was unbelievable, dizzying, tear-inducing. The most incredible thing I've ever heard in my life.

We sit in the backseat of my car, by a pond that is home to turtles, and prepare our goodbye speech. For the past two months, we feverishly borrowed time we couldn't have, delaying our misery until one day time would escape from our clutches.

Today, that one day has arrived. Tomorrow will bring all but one desire; he will leave me behind, and there will be 4300kms and a different time zone separating us.

The goodbye is heartbreaking and gut wrenching. Bittersweet and cruel.

As much as I have tried so desperately to fight it, tears get the best of me. I fall to pieces in his arms, hoping he couldn't care less about the saliferous legacy I'm leaving upon his shoulder.

The silence resonates, but is punctuated by the bravery of our conversations. He interrupts my coming undone.

"How am I going to get over you babe."

I paint a face of pragmatism. Brutal honesty encapsulates my reply.

"You'll miss me for a while. But then you'll start to think of me less and less, until you almost forget what it's like to miss me. And somewhere down the line, you'll move on and you won't miss me anymore."

I am scrupulously emphatic in a lame attempt to pull myself together.

I kiss him with tears streaming down my face. It's messy. It's salty. But it's beautiful and so damn poetic. It's the kind you see in movies. Impulsive, passionate, gutsy and heavyhearted.

Urgh. A perfect cliche.

It's like lingering magic, naturally something we never want to wind-up. But the minutes cruelly tick over until we only have five of them left to explore every nook and cranny in our embrace.

Eventually and reluctantly, it's time to go. I rest my weariness against the window of my car. So sad, but a rush of sweetness fills me up inside.

My lips are violently bee-stung and turn a shade of just-bitten crimson. They know this taste of alkaline all too well. He catches the tears from my pillowy cheeks and I flash my beaming smile.

For all the park-bench moments, the wistful late-night rendezvous, the head-over-feet infatuations.

For the enduring happiness that has articulated this sweetest last kiss.