Ashes

Running, barefoot on memories,

Chasing whispers of red lips,

Your laughter would linger like dawn’s first light,

Soft promises, moments we held too close.

I believed in belief, in the ways

You touched my hair, sealing dreams,

Our laughter filling empty rooms,

Breakfasts left half-eaten, salutations briefly deep,

“There’s no one like you,” you’d say. A lie, or a truth

Today is colder, weighted with loss,

I burned our photos, watched the ashes fall,

Stainless bins filled with blazing echoes;

Echoes no flame can erase; they rise,

Embers of what we couldn’t keep.

Water scalds, but can’t wash away

What’s buried underneath —the ache that remains,

Webs of a love, care, loosened, abstracted.

“What have I done?” I asked silence,

Surprised at a silent response,

Heavy,

Its tears mirroring my own.

Where have you, gone, cold, to a love undone.