Even The Darkness Has Arms

Time does not heal the pain.

You tell yourself that you will never forget them,

but eventually, you do. Little by little.

You forget the way their voice hung in the air,

when the silence drops after midnight, and

you grab hold of the words they said, but they’re

just a string of letters and nothing holds them

together with their voice gone.

You forget the intricacies of their skin, the way

their scars layered in maps on their arms,

where you were so often lost, and now these lines

are gone, just like they always wished.

You forget their stoic stance as they gazed at you

and beyond you, memorizing your imperfections,

and planting you into the depths of their mind.

You only remember how they taught you, that

to heal, you must be held, and so, on all nights

after them, even the darkness has arms.

~ Ashka Naik | The Silent Scribbler