Life’s like an old rose garden,
once blooming,
now withering.

Petals falling,
replaced by dry leaves,
wrapped in silence,
once so rare,
now so heavy.

I return home,
laughter ringing in ears.

But as the door shuts,
loneliness greets me,
like a cold, hazy mist,
or dark clouds that the stars resist.

Maybe you will survive
when the storm is over but
you will never be the same.
It will leave you broken and scattered,
like the ruins of a city and
uprooted like its trees.
Only a wasteland will remain,
to which you will have to
refill with lessons learnt.

no price on the wind,
whispered soft, "Forgive me, friend."
hearts mend without cost.

Pills rattle on cue,
Cats purr in soft solace true.
Sofa hugs my frame,
Netflix whispers, sleep reclaims—
Healing slow, the hours accrue.

Sometimes I need my solitude
when the battery gets low,
when the voices are too loud
and when I feel the weight
of the world upon my shoulders.
We all have our ways of recharging
whether it be in shadows
or in light.

going back to
the person who
made your life
toxic is like
re-watching your favorite movie
in hope of a different
ending each time

My heart sank to
the bottom of your sea
and now I wait for
it to float back
up to me.

my daughter and her friend
scream and laugh
watching a scary movie.

i listen to them.

a moment of heaven
reverberating
through the universe
of our brief lives.

a moment when the struggle of life is forgotten.