The clock bleeds backward Seconds shatter like glass– Your voice A thread unraveling in the static If it can be called that A handprint on the fogged mirror A galaxy pressed into a teardrop You are, not here And yet, everywhere The soil hums with memories of rain I bury my hands deep Searching for the roots of your absence There is no seed, only echo A phoenix rises Not from ashes, but from silence The feathers, They're made of your laughter Molten gold etched with sorrow The stars blink in Morse code But their message is unreadable I thought I understood Until the sky swallowed itself What is the name of the light That exists only in closed eyes? You said it once Or maybe I dreamed it It doesn't matter! A handprint on the fogged mirror A supernova caged in your absence You are, always not here And yet, everywhere A shadow drips from the Moon's edge A tide pulls the earth inward I step through the mirror Only to find That the reflection never needed me