vacant: /VAY-kuhnt/ unfilled; uninhabited; the state of no longer being chosen.

it wasn’t a place,

but the feeling of place—

of being lived in.

where windows once held the shape of laughter and the dust of us 

settled on the sills.

it’s a mess now, and not so beautiful—

the paint is peeling and shadows pool

where pictures once reflected light.

impermanence calls me into vacant rooms and whispers—

 your home is empty.

it sits— a chapel of echoes & residue

of what you said you loved— unhinged from the ruin of certainty.

nothing stays. 

the floorboards groan

beneath the absence of choreography,

the absence of footsteps coming home.

I grieve the architecture,

and wander the halls

looking for a place to put my keys.