when I’m gone
I won’t leave emptiness
I’ll leave a quiet shift
the room will still breathe
just differently
you’ll feel me in pauses
in the way light hesitates on the wall
in the thought
you almost finish aloud
you’ll reach for words 
and find my absence already there
settled in the pauses
teaching you how to listen differently
I won’t be lost
I’ll be threaded through the ordinary
in the way light lingers
in the breath you take
before letting go
in every moment
that asks you to slow down
and feel what’s still here

I won’t be missing
I’ll be everywhere
you learned to look twice