You left so quietly
even the walls kept your secret.
The clock ticked, but time refused to move,
as if it, too, was afraid of losing you.

Was love always meant to be this fragile,
like glass trembling in careless hands?
Or did we hold it too tightly,
mistaking possession for forever?

Your laughter still lingers in corners,
a stubborn echo that will not fade.
I fold your name into my prayers at night,
though heaven knows it by heart already.

How strange that goodbye
is only two syllables,
yet it carries the weight
of oceans breaking against the shore.

I thought love was a home —
steady, warm, unshaken.
But perhaps it was only a season,
beautiful because it could not stay.

If I ever find you in another lifetime,
let us meet where endings do not exist

                                 _Tanvi Singh