I used to think the world would collapse

If you weren’t standing in it.

That I’d wake to an air too heavy to breathe,

Rooms too large to cross,

mornings that wouldn’t know my name.

But lately when you turn away,

The light falls a little differently-

not cruel, just honest.

And I catch myself imagining

How it might feel to live inside that space

without your shadow tracing mine.

Maybe the silence won’t be empty,

Just wide.

Maybe the ache will soften

Into something that hums instead of hollers.

Maybe I’ll stop flinching at the sound of my own peace.

I thought losing you

Would unravel me completely,

but I can feel the thread loosening-

Not snapping, just untying.

And beneath it, there’s air.

There’s me.

Still here.

Still breathing.