This is how we survive these days
Inside phones and our minds
Decorated with sunflower stickers
Laughing about the days of last week
Falling asleep mid conversation
Wondering where our friends from old are
Sending each other songs we go back to
Checking in on tired souls
Cleaning up rusted guitars that don’t sound right
Reading lines that stop making sense
Painting papers with colours mixed in two teardrops
Understanding how limited words are
And what distance means
When I try to reach out and hold your hand

Knowing how blessed we are to stay home
With memories of the past
and how it felt when it rained through the trees
and the butterfly that died sitting on my shelf
the book I forgot to bring
in my hurry to find home
mourning what will never be
words unsaid in unseen palaces
the photograph I didn’t take because I believed time would stay

Wishing you were here
As grief surrounds the sky
While I watch the birds go home
when the sun sets from my balcony.