VOICEMAIL

Ring...
Ring...
Ring...

Your call has been forwarded to an automatic voice message system. At the tone, please record your message.

*Beep.*

Hey... it's me, TlhogiInk.
I know I said I wouldn't call,
But here I am again,
Lost in the silence of what we used to be,
Talking to the void, hoping you hear me somehow.

I've been thinking,
About the way your laugh used to echo in my ears,
How we shared moments, pieces of ourselves,
That now feel too far to reach.
It's funny, isn't it?
How I'm speaking into a phone,
As if it can carry my heart through this invisible line,
But all I hear is emptiness.

I wonder...
Do you still have that sweater I left behind?
Does it still smell like us, like home?
Or has time washed away what we were?
You always said we were stronger than the storms,
But here I am, drowning in memories,
Waiting for the tide to take me somewhere
Where I no longer hear your voice in my sleep.

It's just... I miss you.
I miss who we were before the cracks showed,
Before silence became louder than our words,
Before love turned into something we couldn't recognize.

I'm not asking you to call back,
Maybe this is just me saying goodbye
In the only way I know how-
Through the static,
Through this voicemail you may never listen to.

But if you do,
I just want you to know...
I'm sorry I couldn't fix us.
And even though I'm letting go,
A part of me will always linger,
In the spaces between the rings,
In the pauses before the beep.

Take care.

*Click.*