Still Occupied

The light stayed on when we were gone
Proof we never paid the dark
You asked why I kept the empty cans
They hold the shape when things fall apart

Cracks in the paint counted like days
You’d erase them every week
I stopped drawing after August
It felt too much like grief

There were never chairs to break
Just bodies learning how to wait
You float above the lease we signed
And I forget the space was mine

The floors would shift beneath our feet
The door would hum when no one came
We taped the wires we held our breath
We called the quiet by a name

You whispered nothing here is ours
I smiled and turned the heat up high
We lived between the plaster lines
Pretending rent was time

Now strangers sleep where we once stood
They paint the walls they knock the wood
But no one hears how loud it gets
When nothing left is good

There were never chairs to break
Just bodies learning how to wait
The dent we left is gone by now
But some rooms still retain the weight