Silence

There is no evidence of you here now.

Nothing but a stone and a pile of dust under the soil.

It has been a year since you died.

I let the flowers you planted die too.

My hands were not worthy to touch them.

This ground no longer knows you. Only me.

It has long forgotten the way you used to run barefoot through its tall grass.

I pray for the Earth to forget me as it did you.

I have never liked the sound of my voice in an empty room.

The deafening finality of it is so loud.

There was no one here but us, and that has changed.

The silence is constant now.

I am constantly grasping and letting go of the things that hold onto you.

I am torn between suffering and numbness.

I have never been alone without you.

I wish for the Earth to swallow me, I am the only one left to take.

If I pray to the empty ground of your grave, who will hear?

There is no one.