…shift quietly in my soul

There is something beautiful about the things we no longer need
wilted roses pressed between pages and letters that nobody reads
the promises whispered beneath the autumn skies
and the little white lies we once mistook for a promise of eternity
I have become superfluous in the architecture of your existence
an unnecessary room in a house you no longer inhabit
a staircase leading nowhere, a window overlooking yesterday
a door that opens only to reveal another door
behind which nothing remains
but the unbearable silence of the things left unsaid
I still remember when I mattered
when my name was a prayer upon your trembling lips
when my hands were the harbour where your weary heart rested
when the smallest distance between us, was an unbearable eternity
and every reunion, felt like the resurrection of a thousand fallen stars
but how strange it is, that love can become redundant
without ever truly ending and that the heart can continue beating
for someone who no longer hears its rhythm
and that a memory can remain, long after the moment was gone
I have kept too much of you, in my heart and in my soul
I hear your whispers in my dreams, see your shadow in moonlight
superfluous memories, shift quietly in my soul
just fragments of happiness that serve no purpose now
except to remind me of all that I have lost
©Ann Bagnall