Home That Stayed, Voices That Left 1

[Whispered Opening] (distant, fragile) I came back to the road I used to call my own Dust upon the fence posts Grass between the stones [Verse I] The trees still know my name They lean the way they did But every familiar window Keeps another silence in Old bicycles rust in rain Footprints lost in earth I search the air for laughter That no longer answers first [Fragment] Was it me who changed? Or did time move the house away? [Verse II] The river hums the same tune Beneath the weathered bridge Yet all the voices I carried Have faded at the edge I hold them like photographs Softened by my hands Their colors slowly breaking Into something I understand [Crescendo] I cannot bring them back I cannot make them stay But love is not the leaving Love remains another way [Release] So I walk this uneven road With the wind beside my name And teach these restless memories How to soften into grace [Closing] The trees are still standing The sky is still wide Only the voices have wandered And I have learned That peace is not forgetting— It’s knowing this was home, And loving what remains.