Page 192 of The Secret We Keep

Published 2026 in New York City

Dedicated to Holly Danford

There’s a space in the world, I never knew was empty,

Until the silence grew louder and you stopped filling it for me.

We spoke in ways only we understood.

Laughter,

Inside jokes,

Moments shared,

Now, these words seem strange to me.

As if I forgot how to care.

I still search for traces of you in the places where our footprints used to be.

But all that remains is the hollow sound,

Of echoes that once set me free.

I mourn chapters we’ll never write.

The dreams we won’t chase.

But I carry your light in my heart, beside your warmth, and your grace.

Some days I feel you in the breeze,

A whisper just out of reach.

But I hold on, though it’s hard,

To the secret we keep.

And though the world moves forward,

And life won’t wait for me.

I’ll find a way to move with it,

While you live in memory.