They Left, but Their Memories Stayed

They Left, but Their Memories Stayed

By Ali Asad Ullah

They left.

Not with a bang,

Not with a door slammed shut,

But with a silence so loud

It swallowed the room whole.

No goodbye,

No explanation.

Just absence—

Sharp and sudden,

Like winter arriving overnight.

I looked for traces.

In the clothes still hanging,

The half-read books on the table,

The toothbrush beside mine.

Proof that they were real.

That we were real.

Their voice still echoes down the hall.

Their laughter—ghosted in the wallpaper.

I keep hearing them call my name

In the spaces between

Heartbeats and heartbreaks.

The coffee still brews for two.

I forget and pour too much.

I catch myself speaking out loud—

To no one.

But their memory always answers back.

Nights are the cruelest.

I lie awake,

Haunted by warmth I can’t feel,

And eyes I can no longer see.

My dreams are full of them.

My mornings, empty without them.

They left,

But they didn’t take everything.

Their scent lives in the bedsheets.

Their shadow crosses my doorway.

Their smile flickers

Every time I close my eyes.

And I wonder…

Did they mean to leave so much behind?

Or did they know

Their memory would be the heaviest thing

They could leave me with?

They left.

Yes.

But their memories—

They stayed.

And they never stop knocking.

#Heartbreak #Memory #Poetry #Loss #EmotionalWriting #VocalPoets #GhostOfYou