It starts with doing things without them.
Memory still eats away at the room.
New faces who barely know my name
don’t erase anything.
The body keeps score.
I still feel it—
that sunken drop in my stomach
when I see your friends.
A car that looks like yours
still pulls my mind somewhere else.
But it doesn’t take me all the way anymore.
I notice it…
and I keep moving.
Memories still show up,
but they don’t stay like they used to.
I’m learning...
how to live in the after
without falling back into the before.
May 12
May 12, 2026 at 12:17 AM UTC
It starts with doing things without them.
Memory still eats away at the room.
New faces who barely know my name
don’t erase anything.
The body keeps score.
I still feel it—
that sunken drop in my stomach
when I see your friends.
A car that looks like yours
still pulls my mind somewhere else.
But it doesn’t take me all the way anymore.
I notice it…
and I keep moving.
Memories still show up,
but they don’t stay like they used to.
I’m learning...
how to live in the after
without falling back into the before.
“Pain is often a language we don’t understand yet.”
— Jacob Malone
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