STILL THE ECHO REMAINS
“Haunted by the whys, I waited for the one who never returned.”
~A poetic prelude:
This book is a warm hug for anyone drowning in loneliness, for those who feel they have no one, and for the hearts that find it hard to accept their pain. It’s for the eyes that have cried quietly at night, and the heart that now pretends to be cold even though it’s breaking inside. I want you to know I see how heavy this feels, how impossible it seems to live with it, how every breath hurts a little more. But you will heal, love. You will rise again. You’ll find your way out of this darkness sooner than you think, because even this storm, no matter how strong, will pass. “This too shall pass.”
~Tried to Skip
Tried to skip,
Couldn't skip.
Tried to avoid,
Couldn't avoid.
Tried to escape,
Couldn't escape.
I understood that escapism is not a solution,
that I cannot skip the situation.
The only way out
is to face it all,
to suffer until it doesn't hurt anymore.
~Ink and Pages
I never wanted to waste my ink,
my pages, my words,
on someone who doesn't even care
if I am okay or not.
He never looked back when he left.
Didn’t tilt his head when I walked away.
And yet, I waited
every day, every night
hoping maybe he would return.
But every night,
I slept with heaviness,
broken hopes,
unsaid words.
~Months of Waiting
I thought one month would heal,
maybe two, maybe three.
Ten months later,
I still stand at 4:00 a.m.,
with the same constant ache.
Scary, right?
Oh, how terrifying it is to even imagine this.
Trust me, it’s easy to read,
easy to write,
but impossible to endure.
~The Gift He Left Behind
He left, but the sickening,
heart-aching feelings never left.
He left, but the gift he gave
remains,
the memory of all my efforts
he never appreciated.
I've never felt excitement,
happiness, calmness,
since he left.
Everything only makes me sad,
and I miss him even more.
~Questions That Haunt
Why do people who leave
never look back,
as if we meant nothing?
Was I not enough?
I wasn’t enough to make him stay.
I spent every night asking myself:
Was he thinking of me?
Every morning, the answer was no.
If he cared, he could have texted,
he could have found his way back.
He wasn’t two years old,
but was I ever his home?
Sadly, the answer is no.
~The Days I Lost
Those days spent in complete sadness,
days so hard to survive,
days when I could not speak a word,
days when I begged myself to reach out,
to check his profile,
to send a message one more time.
Insecurity gnawed at me
every girl he followed,
every new connection he made.
I cried and shivered
at the thought of him giving second chances to everyone…
but not me.
I cried for ten months straight.
Helpless.
Horrible.
Miserable.
Shattered.
Unworthy.
~Shattered Heart
No one knew.
Nobody noticed.
I made sure to hide it.
My poor heart can’t take it anymore.
It has no strength
to endure sadness.
I wished I could solve it in a second,
but all I could do was wish.
I tried to make things better,
to explain my perspective,
to understand his.
But in the end,
the one left behind
was me.
Shattered.
Devastated.
Alone.
~Lost Pieces
The place I stood alone when he left
was dark, horrible, terrifying.
I collected every piece of my broken heart,
but some pieces were lost forever.
I tried to fix it,
but could never find those lost fragments.
I live with this incomplete heart.
How could he be so unbothered?
How did I become so unimportant to him?
~Emptiness and Overthinking
Sleep is difficult.
Overthinking never ends.
Anxiety wakes me every morning
with unanswered questions.
How do people move on so easily?
Even when I stay busy,
that emptiness never leaves.
Even for a second of freedom,
that horrible film of him
repeats in my head.
~Memories That Haunt
Sometimes, when I can’t recall him,
half my brain cheers: “We are moving on!”
But the other half shuts that thought down,
forcing me to mourn,
cling to sadness.
He is the memory I wanted to live by,
and now I fear even replaying him.
My poor heart,
pumping blood with no feelings,
never felt the same after that night.
~The Quiet Despair
I stopped talking to people,
stopped laughing,
stopped offering my spark to anyone.
Everything feels temporary, fake.
My world is empty.
The absence of one person
can do this much damage.
~Sleepless Nights
Oh, those sleepless nights.
Oh, the tears that roll uncontrollably.
Oh, my poor heart
that wanted nothing from anyone
yet suffered everything.
The trauma I thought I escaped
pulled me down again.
Breaths were heavy,
body shivering,
heartbeat racing.
~Living with Absence
He left, but never truly left.
“Not every favorite is yours,”
they say.
I don’t hate him
his flaws, lies, lack of value
none of it hurts as much as his absence.
The silence he left behind
destroyed more than words ever could.
~Wishing and Hope
I wish this numbness goes away.
I wish the pieces I lost
find their way back to my heart.
I wish one day I stop stalking him,
stop craving his presence,
sleep peacefully,
and leave behind unanswered questions.
People leave.
Eventually, all we have is ourselves.
May those who hurt us never return.
May we find people who see our worth,
treat us as priority, not option.
You are rare.
Too precious to be anyone’s pastime.
Trust God’s timing.
Time heals.
Your spark will return.
Just know this, love
if you survived this storm,
you will survive the sunrise that follows.
Your healing has already begun, quietly, gently,
in the spaces where your heart still aches.
This is not an ending;
it is the tender beginning
of becoming whole again.
Until we meet in another chapter,
another breath, another softness-
I leave you with all my love.
~The End
BY:
AREEBA SALMAN