The Blueprint of Absensce

The distance isn’t measured just in years,

But in the empty chairs at every stage-

The games, the graduations, and the tears,

The unwritten lines on every growing page.

I used to think I needed you to find

The map of how a man is meant to stand,

But needing is a ghost that leaves you blind;

I simply wanted you to take my hand.

To want the one who cannot give themselves

Is a hollow grief that refuses to be fed.

I buried all those "somedays" on the shelves,

And carried all the words you never said.

But in the quiet of my own reflection,

I found a different kind of bitter light:

You gave me, in your coldness and rejection,

The blueprint for how I would do it right.

I know the weight of being who you weren't,

To hold a heart and never let it go.

Through every lesson that your silence burnt,

I learned the father you will never know.