Tears carve faint rivers on my face,
a map without direction.
Her hands—untouched whispers.
Her voice—swallowed silence.
I wander the plains
she once passed,
leaving only air where footprints should be.

Where was the harbor of her arms?
The rise and fall of her breath,
a tide I’ve never known?
I sift the sands of memory,
but they crumble,
grains slipping through
the hollows of a name
that feels like someone else’s.

Questions scatter like leaves—
fragile, unanswered—
skimming the surface before they sink.
Did she watch my first light bloom?
Did her shadow lean over me,
or was I always a ghost
in her unseeing gaze?

The silence—
heavy as the weight of earth—
presses into my chest.
I bear it still,
a shadowed grief,
a mother’s shape
etched in absence.