Every flicker of light
that falls upon a figure no longer present
reminds me
of you

A faint image
of your silhouette
resting upon a windowsill
gazing out

The shadow you cast upon the floor
lays its grasp
on the lingering fragments of me
still hoping to see you again

and the rest of me follows

What did you see as you stood there?
It must have been
beautiful
the one last moment of freedom you had
unrestrained
unaffected
by the world’s mechanics

all but the inevitable pull of gravity
that never let go of its hold,
not even when you did.
Not when you left
this whole mess behind.

i tell myself
from time to time,
You were a liar.
Every smile of yours,
every time the word “love” slipped through your lips,
all of it
would hurt less if it were fake

There was some truth
in those fleeting moments

but you never showed me
what laid beneath that fragile mask of yours
and i never tore it down
when i had the chance.

If you loved as deeply as I had,
why
pray tell, why
would you
leave
so much pain behind

The part of me
I poured into you
I never saw again

i let myself wither in a corner
and prayed for change where there can be none
and wished to change what could not be undone
and the world, so strange, left me as one
less
than one