My Wife, After

My wife, your name still lingers
Soft against the morning air,
I wake and turn toward your pillow
Half expecting to find you there.

The house remembers you in whispers
In the hum of the evening light,
In the quiet cup beside the sink
You used to rinse each night.

My wife, I speak to you in silence,
In the spaces grief has grown,
At the table set for two
Where now I sit alone.

Your laughter lives within these walls,
Your warmth within my hands,
Though time has carried you from sight,
It does not break our strands.

Losing you has changed the sky
The stars feel farther, dimmer, wide,
But love does not lie in the grave,
It walks forever at my side.

My wife, you are my yesterday,
My always, and my still
And though this world is quieter now,
My heart is yours at will.