Who comes back when you think missing?
37 responses
a quiet spirit in the name of nostalgia, i think
it sits by me
or stands while i look out from my balcony
and it stays
like a quiet grief
the want of the unknown
the things regarding what ifs
and sometimes,
even the quiet settlement
after accepting something for what it was
it's not always the scent
not with me
i was allergic to it before,
but what i see instead
messages
texts
wishes
starred promises
and more often than not,
these were the friends
fading means
with no ends
weathered badger
6d ago
May 30, 2026 at 7:43 AM UTC
The little me. Where is she hiding, and what? What mysteries does she unravel? What hope does she carry in her heart? Where am I because of her, I would follow those breadcrumbs farther and farther in.
late wren
7d ago
May 29, 2026 at 11:21 AM UTC
The scent
The thoughts
The love
The hate
The times that stick as Polaroid images in my mind
Like it or not...
I will carry that weight...
frail creek
7d ago
May 28, 2026 at 3:38 PM UTC
I've learned to cherish little things.
Your laughter through the phone,
The way you share your thoughts and aspiration
When we're both feeling alone.
You tell me all about your dreams,
Even the ones that don't include myself
A picture that I wish for you to capture.
This quiet love I'm holding back,
My sweetest solitude, my silent yearning.
dusky marsh
May 28
May 28, 2026 at 9:47 AM UTC
every last beautiful young soul
that teared the world down to save a life
one life- one world
those who gave their breathe so others can have their oxygen
those who amputated a leg so others can walk
those who felt the passion, the dangerous thrill of war
the love to their poeple
not because we deserve it
but becase
they knew what humanity really meant
steady fox
May 27
May 27, 2026 at 9:47 PM UTC
my face
plastered on posters
people couldn't find me
thought I was still in the city
jokes on them
I was hundreds of miles away
15 hours
Missouri
96 hours
they couldn't find me
my face plastered on postered
"MISSING" scrawled in big block letters
my face
smiling
underneath
stubborn cloud
May 26
May 26, 2026 at 10:17 AM UTC
i miss your contagious laughter,
your old wrinkly face.
i miss running the tips of my small fingers over your white spiky stubble,
it set my child heart ablaze.
your presence was a gift,
your mentorship a blessing.
but soon arrived a shift,
an uncomfortable silence settling.
i remember the day you left us,
i almost broke down.
i miss you every day,
I miss you, grandpa.
lonely willow
May 26
May 26, 2026 at 9:25 AM UTC
I still hear your laughter, and it still electrifies.
I still cry for your pain, and it still turns all dark.
You always come back when I miss you.
You never fail at that.
Even when your flesh has return to the stardust it came from.
And even when your words are a heavy burden and a light legacy.
Your Will carries on. Within.
I just wished I could have recoreded more of you in me.
All your perfection and imperfections I could gather.
That is all I can conjure up.
Your ghost, as always, within.
sudden sparrow
May 26
May 26, 2026 at 8:05 AM UTC
I can't remember
The promise I made
I'm afraid to ask
So I get stuck at the past.
windswept garden
May 26
May 26, 2026 at 4:29 AM UTC
several relatives who have walked off into the crowd never to return
drifting hearth
May 26
May 26, 2026 at 12:24 AM UTC
The one that I once was all those many years ago
small pine
May 25
May 25, 2026 at 11:21 PM UTC
My child self
lost in the chaos and abuse of growing up too fast
I try to find her sometimes
yet somethings are better left unfound and missing
hollow field
May 25
May 25, 2026 at 9:00 PM UTC
A memory, subtle and deep,
From slumber it starts now to creep.
A face, or a sound,
On familiar ground,
Secrets the heart loves to keep.
sudden fern
May 25
May 25, 2026 at 7:37 PM UTC
The emptiness I feel day to day — sometimes it fades away, and as soon as I notice it’s missing,
it comes back crushing me, pulling me down with all its strength.
Suddenly all my happiness is gone,
and this numb, sad feeling returns, staying until I drown in it,
until I lose myself to the point
where my body becomes a battlefield of blood and scars again —
a battlefield no one knows the reason for
moonlit elm
May 25
May 25, 2026 at 4:17 PM UTC
My phone charger
weathered atlas
May 25
May 25, 2026 at 3:37 PM UTC
days that dripped like velvet, sun-kissed & sunken; it's on days like that where I have nothing to cling to but an absence
steady ridge
May 25
May 25, 2026 at 12:23 PM UTC
The one that I let get away....
open marsh
May 25
May 25, 2026 at 11:52 AM UTC
I think of my grandpa.
amber ferry
May 25
May 25, 2026 at 11:52 AM UTC
When I think “missing,”
a small gravity stirs.
Not the person returns,
but the version of me
their light once shaped.
Memory loops its quiet path,
a moon pulling old tides.
What I carry is the outline
their absence left,
a hollow that glows,
a weight that lifts,
an orbit that keeps turning.
wide window
May 25
May 25, 2026 at 11:50 AM UTC
Faces, names etched upon my memory
I wouldn't know if any of them had died
Jada, Dustin, Josi, Lynn, Destiny, Conrad
Friends, usernames I used to see every night
They called me Roach, but said I was the kindest
Xx's, actors they found cute, nothing personal
Blurs, people whose faces disappeared long ago
Good Samaritans, children at skate parks, mothers
They never even said their name, too focused on others
They're missing, gone, and I miss them
weary stoat
May 25
May 25, 2026 at 10:42 AM UTC
A tulip in spring,
A buck in the wood,
Laughter that rings,
They told me I could.
steady elm
May 25
May 25, 2026 at 10:29 AM UTC
When was the goodbye?
That last day in the hospital when you could speak,
or 6 months later when they turned off the ventilator?
Its not goodbye in the cemetery,
its more saying Hi There Sweetheart when I visit,
and See you Later when I depart.
At first it was like being shipwrecked,
everything familiar upturned,
stranded on an unknown shore.
Now the time before resembles a dream.
I guess we're making it without you,
one day at a time,
but we haven't touched your clothes.
amber fox
May 25
May 25, 2026 at 10:23 AM UTC
you,
beloved creature,
the one that got away,
a sense of comfort,
something that felt like home,
muted field
May 25
May 25, 2026 at 9:58 AM UTC
I still hear your voice in my headphones,
A laugh I can't quite replay.
Sometimes your jokes show up in my texts,
Or I see your smile in old photos, tucked away.
You’re the reason I look up at the sky,
Thinking, maybe you can see me now.
I keep finding pieces of you in my playlists,
And in the quiet moments, somehow.
still heron
May 25
May 25, 2026 at 9:55 AM UTC
The bones I carry are heavy
The head on my neck is empty
The blood in my veins, making up a web of roots, sickly
It moves and slithers and courses
My blood is the sea and the sea is so vast and terrible
It carries and buries
There, underneath the waterline, under soft skin
It's a concealed cycle
And I'm spinning in it
steady lark
May 25
May 25, 2026 at 9:24 AM UTC
a quiet spirit in the name of nostalgia, i think
it sits by me
or stands while i look out from my balcony
and it stays
like a quiet grief
the want of the unknown
the things regarding what ifs
and sometimes,
even the quiet settlement
after accepting something for what it was
it's not always the scent
not with me
i was allergic to it before,
but what i see instead
messages
texts
wishes
starred promises
and more often than not,
these were the friends
fading means
with no ends
weathered badger
6d ago
May 30, 2026 at 7:43 AM UTC
The scent
The thoughts
The love
The hate
The times that stick as Polaroid images in my mind
Like it or not...
I will carry that weight...
frail creek
7d ago
May 28, 2026 at 3:38 PM UTC
every last beautiful young soul
that teared the world down to save a life
one life- one world
those who gave their breathe so others can have their oxygen
those who amputated a leg so others can walk
those who felt the passion, the dangerous thrill of war
the love to their poeple
not because we deserve it
but becase
they knew what humanity really meant
steady fox
May 27
May 27, 2026 at 9:47 PM UTC
i miss your contagious laughter,
your old wrinkly face.
i miss running the tips of my small fingers over your white spiky stubble,
it set my child heart ablaze.
your presence was a gift,
your mentorship a blessing.
but soon arrived a shift,
an uncomfortable silence settling.
i remember the day you left us,
i almost broke down.
i miss you every day,
I miss you, grandpa.
lonely willow
May 26
May 26, 2026 at 9:25 AM UTC
I can't remember
The promise I made
I'm afraid to ask
So I get stuck at the past.
windswept garden
May 26
May 26, 2026 at 4:29 AM UTC
The one that I once was all those many years ago
small pine
May 25
May 25, 2026 at 11:21 PM UTC
A memory, subtle and deep,
From slumber it starts now to creep.
A face, or a sound,
On familiar ground,
Secrets the heart loves to keep.
sudden fern
May 25
May 25, 2026 at 7:37 PM UTC
My phone charger
weathered atlas
May 25
May 25, 2026 at 3:37 PM UTC
The one that I let get away....
open marsh
May 25
May 25, 2026 at 11:52 AM UTC
When I think “missing,”
a small gravity stirs.
Not the person returns,
but the version of me
their light once shaped.
Memory loops its quiet path,
a moon pulling old tides.
What I carry is the outline
their absence left,
a hollow that glows,
a weight that lifts,
an orbit that keeps turning.
wide window
May 25
May 25, 2026 at 11:50 AM UTC
A tulip in spring,
A buck in the wood,
Laughter that rings,
They told me I could.
steady elm
May 25
May 25, 2026 at 10:29 AM UTC
you,
beloved creature,
the one that got away,
a sense of comfort,
something that felt like home,
muted field
May 25
May 25, 2026 at 9:58 AM UTC
The bones I carry are heavy
The head on my neck is empty
The blood in my veins, making up a web of roots, sickly
It moves and slithers and courses
My blood is the sea and the sea is so vast and terrible
It carries and buries
There, underneath the waterline, under soft skin
It's a concealed cycle
And I'm spinning in it
steady lark
May 25
May 25, 2026 at 9:24 AM UTC
The little me. Where is she hiding, and what? What mysteries does she unravel? What hope does she carry in her heart? Where am I because of her, I would follow those breadcrumbs farther and farther in.
late wren
7d ago
May 29, 2026 at 11:21 AM UTC
I've learned to cherish little things.
Your laughter through the phone,
The way you share your thoughts and aspiration
When we're both feeling alone.
You tell me all about your dreams,
Even the ones that don't include myself
A picture that I wish for you to capture.
This quiet love I'm holding back,
My sweetest solitude, my silent yearning.
dusky marsh
May 28
May 28, 2026 at 9:47 AM UTC
my face
plastered on posters
people couldn't find me
thought I was still in the city
jokes on them
I was hundreds of miles away
15 hours
Missouri
96 hours
they couldn't find me
my face plastered on postered
"MISSING" scrawled in big block letters
my face
smiling
underneath
stubborn cloud
May 26
May 26, 2026 at 10:17 AM UTC
I still hear your laughter, and it still electrifies.
I still cry for your pain, and it still turns all dark.
You always come back when I miss you.
You never fail at that.
Even when your flesh has return to the stardust it came from.
And even when your words are a heavy burden and a light legacy.
Your Will carries on. Within.
I just wished I could have recoreded more of you in me.
All your perfection and imperfections I could gather.
That is all I can conjure up.
Your ghost, as always, within.
sudden sparrow
May 26
May 26, 2026 at 8:05 AM UTC
several relatives who have walked off into the crowd never to return
drifting hearth
May 26
May 26, 2026 at 12:24 AM UTC
My child self
lost in the chaos and abuse of growing up too fast
I try to find her sometimes
yet somethings are better left unfound and missing
hollow field
May 25
May 25, 2026 at 9:00 PM UTC
The emptiness I feel day to day — sometimes it fades away, and as soon as I notice it’s missing,
it comes back crushing me, pulling me down with all its strength.
Suddenly all my happiness is gone,
and this numb, sad feeling returns, staying until I drown in it,
until I lose myself to the point
where my body becomes a battlefield of blood and scars again —
a battlefield no one knows the reason for
moonlit elm
May 25
May 25, 2026 at 4:17 PM UTC
days that dripped like velvet, sun-kissed & sunken; it's on days like that where I have nothing to cling to but an absence
steady ridge
May 25
May 25, 2026 at 12:23 PM UTC
I think of my grandpa.
amber ferry
May 25
May 25, 2026 at 11:52 AM UTC
Faces, names etched upon my memory
I wouldn't know if any of them had died
Jada, Dustin, Josi, Lynn, Destiny, Conrad
Friends, usernames I used to see every night
They called me Roach, but said I was the kindest
Xx's, actors they found cute, nothing personal
Blurs, people whose faces disappeared long ago
Good Samaritans, children at skate parks, mothers
They never even said their name, too focused on others
They're missing, gone, and I miss them
weary stoat
May 25
May 25, 2026 at 10:42 AM UTC
When was the goodbye?
That last day in the hospital when you could speak,
or 6 months later when they turned off the ventilator?
Its not goodbye in the cemetery,
its more saying Hi There Sweetheart when I visit,
and See you Later when I depart.
At first it was like being shipwrecked,
everything familiar upturned,
stranded on an unknown shore.
Now the time before resembles a dream.
I guess we're making it without you,
one day at a time,
but we haven't touched your clothes.
amber fox
May 25
May 25, 2026 at 10:23 AM UTC
I still hear your voice in my headphones,
A laugh I can't quite replay.
Sometimes your jokes show up in my texts,
Or I see your smile in old photos, tucked away.
You’re the reason I look up at the sky,
Thinking, maybe you can see me now.
I keep finding pieces of you in my playlists,
And in the quiet moments, somehow.
still heron
May 25
May 25, 2026 at 9:55 AM UTC
a quiet spirit in the name of nostalgia, i think
it sits by me
or stands while i look out from my balcony
and it stays
like a quiet grief
the want of the unknown
the things regarding what ifs
and sometimes,
even the quiet settlement
after accepting something for what it was
it's not always the scent
not with me
i was allergic to it before,
but what i see instead
messages
texts
wishes
starred promises
and more often than not,
these were the friends
fading means
with no ends
weathered badger
6d ago
May 30, 2026 at 7:43 AM UTC
I've learned to cherish little things.
Your laughter through the phone,
The way you share your thoughts and aspiration
When we're both feeling alone.
You tell me all about your dreams,
Even the ones that don't include myself
A picture that I wish for you to capture.
This quiet love I'm holding back,
My sweetest solitude, my silent yearning.
dusky marsh
May 28
May 28, 2026 at 9:47 AM UTC
i miss your contagious laughter,
your old wrinkly face.
i miss running the tips of my small fingers over your white spiky stubble,
it set my child heart ablaze.
your presence was a gift,
your mentorship a blessing.
but soon arrived a shift,
an uncomfortable silence settling.
i remember the day you left us,
i almost broke down.
i miss you every day,
I miss you, grandpa.
lonely willow
May 26
May 26, 2026 at 9:25 AM UTC
several relatives who have walked off into the crowd never to return
drifting hearth
May 26
May 26, 2026 at 12:24 AM UTC
A memory, subtle and deep,
From slumber it starts now to creep.
A face, or a sound,
On familiar ground,
Secrets the heart loves to keep.
sudden fern
May 25
May 25, 2026 at 7:37 PM UTC
days that dripped like velvet, sun-kissed & sunken; it's on days like that where I have nothing to cling to but an absence
steady ridge
May 25
May 25, 2026 at 12:23 PM UTC
When I think “missing,”
a small gravity stirs.
Not the person returns,
but the version of me
their light once shaped.
Memory loops its quiet path,
a moon pulling old tides.
What I carry is the outline
their absence left,
a hollow that glows,
a weight that lifts,
an orbit that keeps turning.
wide window
May 25
May 25, 2026 at 11:50 AM UTC
When was the goodbye?
That last day in the hospital when you could speak,
or 6 months later when they turned off the ventilator?
Its not goodbye in the cemetery,
its more saying Hi There Sweetheart when I visit,
and See you Later when I depart.
At first it was like being shipwrecked,
everything familiar upturned,
stranded on an unknown shore.
Now the time before resembles a dream.
I guess we're making it without you,
one day at a time,
but we haven't touched your clothes.
amber fox
May 25
May 25, 2026 at 10:23 AM UTC
The bones I carry are heavy
The head on my neck is empty
The blood in my veins, making up a web of roots, sickly
It moves and slithers and courses
My blood is the sea and the sea is so vast and terrible
It carries and buries
There, underneath the waterline, under soft skin
It's a concealed cycle
And I'm spinning in it
steady lark
May 25
May 25, 2026 at 9:24 AM UTC
The little me. Where is she hiding, and what? What mysteries does she unravel? What hope does she carry in her heart? Where am I because of her, I would follow those breadcrumbs farther and farther in.
late wren
7d ago
May 29, 2026 at 11:21 AM UTC
every last beautiful young soul
that teared the world down to save a life
one life- one world
those who gave their breathe so others can have their oxygen
those who amputated a leg so others can walk
those who felt the passion, the dangerous thrill of war
the love to their poeple
not because we deserve it
but becase
they knew what humanity really meant
steady fox
May 27
May 27, 2026 at 9:47 PM UTC
I still hear your laughter, and it still electrifies.
I still cry for your pain, and it still turns all dark.
You always come back when I miss you.
You never fail at that.
Even when your flesh has return to the stardust it came from.
And even when your words are a heavy burden and a light legacy.
Your Will carries on. Within.
I just wished I could have recoreded more of you in me.
All your perfection and imperfections I could gather.
That is all I can conjure up.
Your ghost, as always, within.
sudden sparrow
May 26
May 26, 2026 at 8:05 AM UTC
The one that I once was all those many years ago
small pine
May 25
May 25, 2026 at 11:21 PM UTC
The emptiness I feel day to day — sometimes it fades away, and as soon as I notice it’s missing,
it comes back crushing me, pulling me down with all its strength.
Suddenly all my happiness is gone,
and this numb, sad feeling returns, staying until I drown in it,
until I lose myself to the point
where my body becomes a battlefield of blood and scars again —
a battlefield no one knows the reason for
moonlit elm
May 25
May 25, 2026 at 4:17 PM UTC
The one that I let get away....
open marsh
May 25
May 25, 2026 at 11:52 AM UTC
Faces, names etched upon my memory
I wouldn't know if any of them had died
Jada, Dustin, Josi, Lynn, Destiny, Conrad
Friends, usernames I used to see every night
They called me Roach, but said I was the kindest
Xx's, actors they found cute, nothing personal
Blurs, people whose faces disappeared long ago
Good Samaritans, children at skate parks, mothers
They never even said their name, too focused on others
They're missing, gone, and I miss them
weary stoat
May 25
May 25, 2026 at 10:42 AM UTC
you,
beloved creature,
the one that got away,
a sense of comfort,
something that felt like home,
muted field
May 25
May 25, 2026 at 9:58 AM UTC
The scent
The thoughts
The love
The hate
The times that stick as Polaroid images in my mind
Like it or not...
I will carry that weight...
frail creek
7d ago
May 28, 2026 at 3:38 PM UTC
my face
plastered on posters
people couldn't find me
thought I was still in the city
jokes on them
I was hundreds of miles away
15 hours
Missouri
96 hours
they couldn't find me
my face plastered on postered
"MISSING" scrawled in big block letters
my face
smiling
underneath
stubborn cloud
May 26
May 26, 2026 at 10:17 AM UTC
I can't remember
The promise I made
I'm afraid to ask
So I get stuck at the past.
windswept garden
May 26
May 26, 2026 at 4:29 AM UTC
My child self
lost in the chaos and abuse of growing up too fast
I try to find her sometimes
yet somethings are better left unfound and missing
hollow field
May 25
May 25, 2026 at 9:00 PM UTC
My phone charger
weathered atlas
May 25
May 25, 2026 at 3:37 PM UTC
I think of my grandpa.
amber ferry
May 25
May 25, 2026 at 11:52 AM UTC
A tulip in spring,
A buck in the wood,
Laughter that rings,
They told me I could.
steady elm
May 25
May 25, 2026 at 10:29 AM UTC
I still hear your voice in my headphones,
A laugh I can't quite replay.
Sometimes your jokes show up in my texts,
Or I see your smile in old photos, tucked away.
You’re the reason I look up at the sky,
Thinking, maybe you can see me now.
I keep finding pieces of you in my playlists,
And in the quiet moments, somehow.
still heron
May 25
May 25, 2026 at 9:55 AM UTC