In memory of you

i’ve returned to the house
a place i know so well
yet i feel like a stranger
nothing changed, nothing moved
except maybe the layers of dust
that have thickened since last time


your room untouched
a dog eared book with a mark
at the page you last read
the sheets still the same
preserving the smell of you
one solitary rose in the vase
dried and withered


i want to leave things
the way i’d left them before
so i sit on the edge of your bed
where we sat once not long ago
reminiscing moments that once filled
this room with life


now lifeless, the light filters in
through a crack in the glass
highlighting the solitary rose
i gave to you the night before
you left
so long ago and yet so close
that is the only thing
i’ll take back with me this time
the rose and a memory of you


the rose, in memory of you