A Soft Goodbye

I’m nothing now—

not a was, nor will be,

a whisper in silence,

ether in a vacuum,

a broken vow,

a ship lost at sea.

Gone up in fumes,

vanished somehow,

along with my memory,

a ghost in the gloom,

a name unspoken

in time’s dark loom.

Once I burned bright,

a flame in the dark,

but winds were strong—

they stole my spark.

Now I drift

like ash through night.

No footprints left

on this road of glass,

just cracks and echoes

as the moments pass.

Each breath is borrowed,

each heartbeat masked.

I called to the stars,

they turned away.

I prayed to the void,

but it had nothing to say.

Now even my shadow

refuses to stay.

My face, forgotten

by mirrors and men,

I dissolve with dusk

and rise again

not in form,

but in aching "when?"

I’m nothing now—

but maybe a sigh,

the trace of a tear

in a stranger’s eye,

a flicker, a flick,

a soft goodbye.