"So it's true, when all is said and done, grief is the price we pay for love." ― E.A. Bucchianeri
First Night — The Empty Bed
The bed is too wide, too cold, too bare,
I reach to your side, but nothing is there.
My hands tremble against the linen sheet,
Searching for warmth they'll never meet.
The silence is louder than any sound,
It presses my chest, it keeps me bound.
I beg for sleep, but it will not stay,
It leaves me alone till the break of day.
I stare at the ceiling until it sways,
Counting the cracks in a hundred ways.
Every tick of the clock cuts like a knife,
This is the start of my broken life.
The phone lies dead, no message, no call,
I scroll through your photos, I watch, I fall.
I whisper "come back," into the air,
But air doesn't answer, it doesn't care.
The night feels longer than all my years,
I drown in sweat, I choke on tears.
The pillow knows, it soaks each plea,
But nothing, nothing, returns you to me.
Second Night — The Ache Grows
My hands shake harder, I can't stay still,
The dark is a hunter, it comes to kill.
I walk in circles across the floor,
Each step just heavier than before.
The walls close in, they breathe my name,
Mocking me gently, driving me insane.
I swear I feel you just out of reach,
But ghosts don't love, and ghosts don't speak.
The glass of water spills on my knees,
My fingers tremble, they beg, they plead.
I clutch at my chest as if it might break,
This body's a prison, this pain won't shake.
I turn the lights on, I turn them off,
But darkness sneers and laughs too soft.
The night is a monster, waiting to feed,
And I am its meal, I am its need.
I scream in silence, no one can hear,
Your absence deafens the atmosphere.
The ache grows teeth, it bites, it bleeds,
And swallows the man I used to be.
Third Night — Madness at the Door
I don't remember when day became night,
They blur together, both cruel, both white.
I wander rooms I don't recognize,
Each corner another grave for my eyes.
The mirror reflects a face half-dead,
Eyes ringed with shadows, lips cracked red.
Who is this man who begs to sleep?
Who lives on the edge of wounds too deep?
I claw at the sheets till my knuckles tear,
I curse the world, I curse the air.
Your voice returns like a fevered song,
But every note is jagged and wrong.
I try to write, but the words won't stay,
They slip through my hands and rot away.
Even my thoughts betray my trust,
They twist to ashes, they turn to dust.
The night sits heavy, it chains me down,
It chews my bones, it makes me drown.
Madness knocks softly against my door,
I fear the night….I can't take more.
Fourth Night — Breaking Apart
The body refuses to eat or drink,
It only wants time, it only wants sink.
I curl on the floor, hands on my head,
Wishing the night would leave me dead.
Your scent still lingers in clothes I wear,
I bury my face, but you're not there.
It cuts like glass, this phantom trace,
It kills me slowly in your embrace.
I beg the silence for just one word,
A whisper, a shadow, anything heard.
But silence stays, it's sharp, it's tight,
It strangles the soul, it wins the fight.
The nights are daggers, the hours knives,
They carve away the rest of my life.
I shake, I shiver, I break, I bend,
I pray for it all to simply end.
The world outside goes on, moves fast,
But I am a man stuck in the past.
The fourth night leaves me torn in two,
A broken body still calling for you.
Fifth Night — The Ash Remains
Tonight I do not fight or plead,
The nights have taken all I need.
No tears are left, no breath to waste,
Only the ghost of your fading face.
I no longer reach across the bed,
I know you're gone, the love is dead.
My hands are still, no trembling now,
Only the weight of an empty vow.
The night no longer frightens me,
It's just the air I'm forced to breathe.
I've made my home in this silent hell,
Where absence is all I've learned to tell.
It doesn't heal, it doesn't mend,
It simply teaches how things end.
You're not a wound, you're now a scar,
I carry you close, though you are far.
Five nights of hell, and I've become stone,
A man half living, a man alone.
This is the truth, no more disguise:
The night is endless…so are goodbyes.