There is a place the body cannot follow— a hush between heartbeats where memory lingers after the voice is gone. That is where you live now.
Not in the photos I can barely touch. Not in the places we once stood, but in the silence that knows your shape.
I called your name once, long after the world said I should stop. It didn’t answer back— not with sound. But the trees leaned in, and the wind moved like you did when you entered a room without trying.
Sorrow doesn’t scream. It whispers. And in that whisper, I heard your laugh, your sigh, the moment you forgave me without saying so. Grief made me echo, but love gave the echo a rhythm. Now, when I fall quiet, it’s not to forget, but to feel the trace of who you were still alive in the spaceleft behind.