Penelope's short piece starts with a familiar saying, that you don't know what you have until it's gone, and then turns it into something more uneasy. The speaker admits they sometimes want their partner to leave, and not out of cruelty. They want to run a test: if the person were really gone, would the speaker find out whether what they had was the best they could get? It's a confused, honest wish, caught between doubt and attachment.
The last line shifts the mood from restless to hurt. The speaker asks a question and wants an answer, but only silence comes back. The poem doesn't say what the question was, which leaves it hanging, and that suits the feeling. The silence could be the other person's refusal to engage, or it could be a sign of how little the two are really saying to each other. Either way, the tone is lonely and uncertain. The speaker seems stuck between pushing someone away and needing them to speak up.