Lost Stories

A Poem

Photo by Monisha Selvakumar on Unsplash

i light a candle
for the memory of you
just once, just once
in case my soul’s at stake

and i pray for you
in the only ways i know how
that don’t involve god

i wish for you to have
health, happiness, and heart —
all the things to guide you along
when life feels its coldest

and i pray that you’ll know
what it’s like to be seen and loved
for who you are in all your beauty

i think of better days
when we stood in each other’s stories,
the fabric of lives twined together,
as if there were no place we’d rather be

and i pray in strings of words,
each one like the bead of a rosary,
my head bent towards the one photo i have

i sit still in this quiet misery
that i’ve brought upon myself
because i should have known better
than to try to steal what wasn’t mine