The Echo of After

Some people leave like storms You hear the damage for years Others leave quietly and somehow that's worse No slammed doors, no final cruelty just the slow disappearance of someone who once knew how you took your tea what silence meant you were hurting, which version of you needed gentleness that day And still, months later your mind carries them like a habit it forgot to break You see them in ordinary things In songs half-heard from passing cars. In the pale gold of evening light resting on the floorboards In the pause between messages from everyone else It's ridiculous, really Human beings spend years teaching their hearts the shape of another person then act surprised when the heart keeps tracing it afterward I do not miss you loudly anymore Grief has softened since then It no longer claws at my ribs Now it arrives gently sits beside me for a while touches everything you once touched Sometimes I think healing is just learning how to carry ghosts without letting them drag behind you Because I have continued I laugh I sleep The world didnt end because you left it But there are nights where memory opens its old windows, and there you are again Not mine Not coming back. Just familiar enough to ache