Fading Reels

I miss you—truth painfully sputtered

Into the void where you once stood.

The words hang, heavy in the air,

As if they could bridge the chasm between us.

"Why did you say that?" she asks,

Her voice a whisper from the past.

I reach for her, grasping only shadow,

"I'm speaking to the ghost of us," I reply.

The amber version of us

Plays chaos in my soul

Memories flicker like old film reels

Projecting what was onto what is

"Do you remember?" I call out,

To the emptiness that answers.

"Of course," comes the echo of her laugh,

A sound that exists now only in my mind.

I lose myself in

The weary tide

Of mourning

What we

Lost

"Was it worth it?" she queries,

Her presence a figment, yet so real.

I pause, considering the weight of years,

"Every moment," I breathe, "even the end."

The dialogue fades, leaving only silence

And the bittersweet taste of recollection.

In this space between memory and reality,

I cradle the remnants of our shared history.

_Ravi D