Echoes in my chest

Someone asks me, “Do you pray?”
I shake my head,
not out of pride,
but out of truth.
“I don’t pray,”  I say, “I hope.”
Hope is the only thing I’ve ever trusted
to show up
when nothing else does.

The love of my life asks me, “Happy or sad?”
Her voice soft, like she already knows the answer.
“Sad,” I say,
not to push her away,
but because pretending
is heavier than honesty ever could be.

It’s strange, how close I came
to
having
every
fucking
thing
I ever wanted.
Close enough to taste the future
like a promise on my tongue
close enough that losing it
still echoes in my chest.

There was a time I used to laugh.
Loud.
Real.
The kind of laugh that fills rooms
and makes people turn
just to feel a little warmer because of it.

Now I don’t pray.
I hope.
I wait.
I hold the pieces quietly,
because somewhere inside me
I still believe
that laughter isn’t gone
just resting.

And maybe one day,
I’ll hear it again
and recognize myself in the sound.

The Measure of Living

Alone I have walked where the silence is long,
No chorus behind me, no guiding song.
The roads I have taken were jagged, unplanned,
Each stumble a teacher, each scar a hand.

I learned that the fire refines what it burns,
That wisdom is earned in the weight of returns.
No lesson is gentle, no mercy is free,
Yet each leaves a mark that has fashioned me.

But time is a river that will not be still,
It rushes unheeding of hope or will.
It carries the weak, it carries the strong,
And never looks back as it hurries along.

So I stand in the current, steadfast, alone,
Shaped by the hours that cut me to bone.
The world will keep turning, indifferent, untrue
But I keep on learning, and still I push through.

I’ve watched constellations give way to the dawn,
And moments I cherished slip quietly on.
The laughter, the sorrow, the losses, the gain
All swept in the tide that no hand can restrain.

Yet even as seasons fall faster each year,
The silence within me grows steady, sincere.
For strength is not found in what time can erase,
But in bearing its weight with a patient grace.

And when the last ember of memory glows,
What lingers is not what the calendar shows.
But the truths we have carried, the love we have sown,
The steps we have taken, however alone.

And when all else has faded, when echoes are gone,
Time marches onward, and the world carries on.
For the measure of living is not what we own,
It’s the courage to walk when we walk alone.

Thrones I Never Chased

I never wore the crown of “rare”
Just stayed persistent, curious, aware.
Adaptable, willing to stumble and learn,
Through wrong-way turns and a few U-turns.

The path was seldom a perfect design,
Yet each misstep drew a sharper line.
I found small truths where the big ones hide,
And learned to keep both grit and pride.

The world will bend, but so will I,
Meeting each question with a “why not try?”
If there’s a crown I’ve come to own,
It’s built from lessons I’ve carved in stone.

No gilded throne, no easy acclaim,
Just quiet resolve through joy and strain.
The rarest gift I’ve come to see is the will to shape what’s meant to be.

So here I stand, not seeking a throne,
But steady in ground I’ve made my own.
If life’s a maze with a shifting chart,
I’ll find the exit by making new starts.

Unfinished business

Love came quiet, a whisper, a thread,
Wove through the hours where silence had bled.
It lit up the dark like a midsummer flame,
And nothing, not even the stars, felt the same.

We danced through the days with our hearts wide apart,
Stitching new galaxies into one heart.
You laughed like the world had never known pain,
And I followed, like thunder follows the rain.

But time, cruel time, with hands made of glass,
Let all our sweet promises silently pass.
A word, a look, a pause too long—
And something so certain began to feel wrong.

I begged the night to keep you near,
But echoes don’t answer and shadows don’t hear.
You slipped through the cracks where forever once grew,
And love, oh love, forgot how to be true.

Now I hold what’s left like dust in my chest,
Where your name used to echo and hope used to rest.
Still, I’d do it again—yes, even the fall,
For to love you at all was worth losing it all.

Today Feels Like Yesterday

They say that time will dull the sting,
That healing hides in everything.
But years have passed, and I still find
You echo loud within my mind.

The world moved on, the seasons spun,
But I’m still paused where we were one.
The day you left, the sky turned gray—
And somehow, it still feels like yesterday.

I see your smile in morning light,
I hear your voice when things aren’t right.
I reach for you when I’m unsure,
As if your touch could still assure.

You weren’t just wise—you were the core,
A steady hand, a quiet shore.
A father not by blood, but soul,
You filled the gaps and made me whole.

And now I walk this world alone,
With lessons etched into my bone.
But some days still, I lose my way—
Because it always feels like yesterday.

I fake the strength, I wear the face,
But there’s a void I can’t replace.
You built me up, you showed me how—
I just wish I could ask you now.

I’d trade the years, I’d trade the pain,
For one more talk, one last refrain.
But all I have is what you gave—
A legacy I try to brave.

So if you’re near in some old song,
In thoughts that guide me when I’m wrong,
Then know I miss you more than I can say—
And for me, it still feels like yesterday.

Modern Love

Is life ironic or tragic?
Some moments slip through hands like magic.

You are a different person to everyone you meet—
To some, a comfort; to some, deceit.

You are a villain in someone’s story and a hero in another’s.
For most, you’re just a passing thought,
A spark in the dark they soon forgot.

A name?
Perhaps, countless versions of yourself,
Like books unread on a dusty shelf.

I met you when I wasn’t looking for you,
Like the moonlight in a sky I never knew.

I lost you when I loved you most,
Your memory now a haunting ghost.

Life leaves you with memories and lessons you never asked for,
Like waves that crash but never reach the shore.

The depth of your love today can be the depth of your wound tomorrow,
Joy borrowed, repaid in sorrow.

But still, we love—with reckless grace,
Hoping to eventually end up in the same place.

Love & Care

The only medicine for the one in love
is the sight of their beloved
The greatest thief of joy
is the compulsion to compare

You hope that true love fits like a glove
You hope to find light somewhere in the night
You hope that one day your belief will bring you relief
You hope to find love in the air so be it with a prayer

Do we cry because we feel alone?
Or do we cry because we have misplaced our backbone?
They say your life’s pain is already set in stone
They say, in the end you’ll be all on your own

Can I ask you a question?
If it was just down to life and me,
And you had to make a choice to say goodbye
Would it be me or just something meant to be

Smile if you can today

Time for a switch?
Nothing permanent, how about a minor glitch?

Life is beautiful as it is
Let us be positive and keep our chins up high
Let us not worry about the world’s reply
No matter even if it is a goodbye

How about you smile today?
A day where you don’t worry about who’s away
Just go out with your innocence and play

Now, why don’t you learn to forgive?
Go ahead and drive to the edge of town until there is nothing left
Just keep going and don’t look back

Life is beautiful as it is
You are beautiful as it is
Perhaps you have come too far to change now
Maybe don’t fixate on the ‘why’ and rather focus on the ‘how’


Keep Digging

Lately all my hearts have been breaking
My knees have been shaking
Save me from this game that I have been playing
The decisions I have been thinking of making

Let us go back a second
My hands on the clock and the tears on this page do not lie
Do I have blood on my hands, or is my heart just bone dry

When you give your heart to someone
You might never get it back
I pick up my rucksack, grab a ice pack and head for the tarmac
I wish I had known that after all this
I’d still be alone heading for the unknown

Some say patience is a virtue
Let us hold our hands in hope
Someone will eventually search for you too

Trying to bury my happiness gave me a grave of my own
The search is still on and time will tell
It’ll either be us or your name set in stone

Somewhere Only You Know

One day.
A beautiful day, full of anticipation, with birds chirping happy songs in the atmosphere.
My smile and I walk toward the first sunrise of the year.
Our first day spent looking up at the sky,
Not a care in this world, not wondering why.

A rush.
A careless progression toward the forefront of happiness.
Come together, my love, my bird – my flightless feather.
The sun may rise, but night will always fall,
And in the darkness, shadows heed the call.
Beneath the mask of light, the dark does hide,
In every heart, where secret fears reside.

Adrenaline.
Surging through me as I stand at the cliff’s edge, ready to leap.
I want to fight, but my heart falls asleep.
There is no place I’d rather be, and everyone agrees but me.

Whispers.
The wind carries secrets only the brave dare to hear,
Of dreams unspoken and the weight of fear.
We dance on the edge of dawn and night,
In a world where shadows embrace the light.
Hand in hand, we face the unknown,
In this vast universe, together, alone.