After you

I loved you in a way that leaves a mark, A quiet flame that lingers in the dark, It warmed my hands, then slowly burned them through, Now even light reminds me just of you. I trace your ghost in every passing thought, In all the fragile peace I haven’t caught, The world still turns, but something stays the same— No other heart has ever fit your name. And how do I begin to love anew, When love itself still echoes back to you? Each “almost” feels like something torn apart, A stranger standing where you left your heart. Yet somewhere in this ache, so soft, so deep, A quiet hope refuses still to sleep, That love, though changed, may find me once again— Not as it was, but gentler… after then.