There’s dust where you used to stand

Still shapes the light across my hand

No one sees, but I still trace

The outlines time could not erase

A name I don’t say out loud

Still lingers like a passing cloud

You’re not here, but you still stay

In the pause between each day

You’re a phantom weight I carry slow

Not heavy, just too deep to throw

You don’t break me, but you bend

The way I speak, the way I mend

And though you’ve slipped beyond my reach

You still move beneath my speech

A quiet ache I never chose

But somehow, it’s the part that grows

I’ve built a life with space for you

Not as you were, but what I knew

A laugh, a glance, a silent thread

That ties the now back to what’s shed

No need to fix what can’t be found

I plant my feet on shifting ground

And if I cry, it’s not regret

It’s love that hasn’t faded yet

You’re a phantom weight I carry slow

Not heavy, just too deep to show

You don’t break me, but you bend

The way I breathe, the way I end

Each sentence with a trailing thought

Of all you gave, of all I lost

A quiet ache I can’t outgrow

But maybe that’s the way we know

Some things aren’t meant to leave

They settle in like roots beneath

Not holding back, not holding on

Just part of how we carry on

You’re a phantom weight, not in vain

A missing shape that still remains

You don’t haunt me, you don’t fade

You’re just the silence I’ve replayed

In every step, in every scar

You are what makes me who you are

You’re not a shadow, not a ghost

You’re just the part I feel the most