The Chair You Left Warm

Your mug is on the top shelf

Like you’ll reach for it again

I still save you a seat

By the window when it rains

Your hair tie in my drawer

Your notes in my old book

I move them like they’re fragile

Like they might still feel my touch

I turn my head too fast

At sounds I used to know

I’m learning how to breathe

When the room won’t answer back

I miss you in the daylight

I miss you after dark

In the gaps between my sentences

In the softest part of my heart

If you’re somewhere past the streetlights

Somewhere the noise can’t reach

Please know I’m saying your name

In every quiet prayer I keep

Your coat still hangs by mine

Like it’s waiting for a walk

I pour two cups by mistake

Then laugh and lose my thought

I replay that last voice note

Just to hear you sound like you

Then I hold my breath a second

Like I’m waiting for “me too”

If love could bend the time

I’d meet you where we used to be

But all I have is morning

And the way you live in me

I miss you in the daylight

I miss you after dark

In the gaps between my sentences

In the softest part of my heart

If you’re somewhere past the streetlights

Somewhere the noise can’t reach

Please know I’m saying your name

In every quiet prayer I keep