In another universe.
Things would be so new.

There wouldn't be a me.
Without having a you.

We'd have the things we crave.
Our stomachs would be full.

There would be so much laughter.
There would be so much chatter.

Your smile would've never dimmed.
Your eyes would've never darkned.

We'd be a family.

There would be a fully set table.
There would be a fully set house.

Nothing would ever be fixed.
As nothing would be broken.

You would have stayed you.
I would have stayed me.

Now we are worlds apart.
Now we are left alone.

All I have are memories.
Even in time they fade.

There is no alternate universe.
And it's killing me everyday.

We will always be sisters.
We will never be the same.

My heart will always ache.

What a day!
Cats and dogs at a gray soggy play!
And I,
wet like a rat in a bucket emptied spray,
afloat in some other soggy boggy day
when love sloshed in a dismal pool of gray,
floundering in a fiendish feline fray,
stuck and struck in her seismic, sonic sway…

Oh, that catty countenance with fanged sustenance,
turbid turbulence and lurid malevolence,
that midnight ambulance in horrid remembrance!

Hunting stare hunched in her browbeating brow.
Puny purring powwow met with caterwaul and yawl.
Sweet savannah meow gone in  hellish growl.

Alarming anger on an angular arch.
Claws bared in a mad menacing march.
Crisscrossed with a seeping scratch and such!

What a row!
Rage, a full bent feline bow,
ready to lash a claw; or ready just to throw
fire flicking arrows through two slits narrow,
hissing, spitting, screeching and scratching
over my poetry popping pillow!

           Ripping, rooting, pawing and clawing
           my chuffy, puffy, poofy and goofy
           poetry popping pillow!

Insults stood on end at verbal animosity.
No reciprocity to my purring grandiosity.
No curiosity to quell her feral ferocity.

Such feline a fever...
I’m aligned to see cats never.

My cattish brunette, now a silhouette,
bitter a vignette from seismic a duet,
smoldering a briquette on blank a palette.

24/11/2024
Hirondelle

It wasn't just a sound;
it was a map,
leading to a world
I thought we would build -
a world where her laugh
would echo down the corridors of our home.
spilling into the rooms
where children would learn
the magic of their mother's joy

Her laughter -
was color and warmth to the walls
of gray stone.

A pebble skipping over still waters,
shaking the silence
of my life before her.

But it's gone now,
its music quieted.
I still wait to hear it -
its rise, its ripple, its reverberation
the careless abandon
that made me believe
tomorrow could be beautiful.

I live now among echoes,
pieces of her joy caught in the
corners
of old conversation.
I would give anything to hear it
again,
to let it anchor me
to the dreams
we started to weave.

But laughter, like love,
cannot be held in place.
It flutters away
as quickly as it came
and I sit in its absence
holding onto the memory
of a giggle

Sometimes I remember you,  
On nights when the stars feel closer,  
When silence presses heavy on my chest,  
And I ache for the way you once fit there.  

I see us in flashes—  
A late-night drive with the world asleep,  
Your laughter dancing in the air,  
Breaking the quiet like a song I’ll never hear again.  
We made the moon jealous,  
Didn’t we?  

I remember the afternoons too,  
Worn-out paths beneath our feet,  
Your hand brushing mine like it was meant to.  
We talked of dreams, of nothing, of everything,  
And nothing else mattered.  
Not the ticking of clocks,  
Not the weight of the world.  
Just you. Just us.  

You were perfect to me—  
More than perfect,  
You were home.  
The one who made the chaos pause,  
The one who saw the worst of me,  
And stayed.  

I loved the way we teased each other,  
How your smile dared the sun to shine brighter.  
You knew all my edges, my flaws, my fears,  
And still, you fit into my arms like they were built for you.  
I would give it all back—  
Every piece of myself,  
Every fragment of pride,  
To stand in that place again.  

But these are just memories now,  
A cruel echo of what once was.  
No words can turn back time,  
No plea can undo the silence you left behind.  
I think about you daily—  
Your voice, your touch, your everything.  

And I regret.  
I regret every moment I let slip,  
Every second I thought we had forever.  
Because forever ended too soon,  
And now I walk alone,  
Knowing I will never love another like I loved you.  

Sometimes, I remember you,  
And the world feels both too much and not enough.  
You’re gone,  
And I’m here,  
Holding onto the pieces of us,  
Wishing I had held you tighter when I had the chance.

There is still an echo similar to a giggle.

So far away that heart can barely feel them and the mind can barely touch them. So faded away in the fog of despair, I embarked on a journey while floating on the waves of my memory.

Laughter so dying,

Residing in the corner of a decaying reminiscence.

Laughter so dying,

Erasing from the brain like a remembrance of a bird passing by.

Laughter so dying,

Sinking in the depths of hopelessness.

Laughter so dying,

Misery feeds upon contentment and serenity is overwhelmed by emptiness.

Laughter so dying,

It stays in our chest forever, slowly building a house, now called grief, that once was home to decaying laughter.

it's intoxicating.
the salt air on cool nights.

wind that disperses the scent,
pushing it closer to the deck
that warm bodies
are perched on.

warm bodies
that have full bellies
that grow painful
each time they laugh.

bellies that have been aching
for the last few hours,
because the laughter is harmonising
with body cries.

salt air
that blankets them.

salt air
so inebriating
it forces them into admission.

sweet confessions whispered
over mugs (warm and full).

songs of 'i love you'
swept up by the moon,
only to be caught in trees,
(let the words nestle here, please.
close to the ground,
before they are taken by the breeze).

Loyalty, honesty, respect—
That’s all I ask, and all I give.
I’d never seek to change your soul,
For it’s your spirit that makes me whole.
Through laughter, tears, and all we’ve known,
You’ve never had to walk alone.
I stand with you, in light or dark,
Our bond unshaken, a constant spark.
No need for words, no need for show,
True friendship’s strength is all I know.