I fought in this battle, heart full, hands red. I smiled when we won— she won. So why does my chest feel empty, griefed? Why is the world more full, yet feels so much more lonely? A promise has been filled, yet hollowness still fills. Maybe it’s the silence— the peace that she’s safe, and the basement that echoes my unheard face. I never knew how tightly I clung to the fight— for her, to you— my life. I didn’t realize that by fighting for your presence in her life, I’d be fighting for your absence in mine. And now that it’s over, now that it’s love— shouldn’t I rise instead of sink beneath what I dreamed of? But fire screams, burning me out, not with anger, nor blame. Only with love— a soft yet heavy flame. So heavy it muffles the sound, not meaning to erase, yet fading all the same. And somehow that silence was the sharpest absence.