There’s an emptiness in a cemetery
It doesn’t come from the lack of people
The lack of movement, the stillness in the air
It doesn’t come from the abscene of laughter, of kids running around
It comes from the emptiness within
They tell you grief is an emotion, but they’re wrong
Grief, when it’s fresh and new
Or when it hits you in a patch of sunlight decades too late
Grief is the absence of emotion
It’s that feeling of something being missing
Right next to your heart, it’s cold
And what is cold but the absence of heat
It’s the knowing that you’re not there
It’s the missing sound where your giggles would be
The missing light where your smile should be
I walk into the graveyard and it grows darker
The abscence of light reflects the absence of emotion
The grief within me spills over, the lack
It’s choking the flowers I hold
And when I place them beside the rock that bears your name
That bears what your entire life will become
They look more shriveled and dead
Than when I bought them minutes ago
They’re empty of life and that’s on me
There’s only echoes of you left now
The imprints of where you touched the world
In the people you met and the stories they tell
You were a person for the stories, I’ll give you that
But now, now you live in nothing but echoes
And I, I live in nothing but the emptiness of cemeteries
Leave a comment