And when you laugh
the sound plants gardens inside me;
flowers blooming where the cracks
in my heart used to be.
And your smile, so radiant
it puts the sun to shame,
gives the plants the nutrients
they need to survive.

But soon the light dulls
and the laughter subsides,
and the petals shrivel and the stems die
and the garden begins to crumble,
falling through the cracks it once filled
until they are gaping again
just like the space next to me
that you left behind.