When the Place I Loved Was Gone

I returned to where it once stood

Not expecting it back

But to see what remained in me without it

Nothing was there

No gate

No stone

Even the ground had forgotten the name it once held

But I had not

I stood in silence not to grieve

But to measure the distance between memory and truth

It was shorter than I feared

This place raised me but did not bind me

It taught me strength then vanished like a teacher at the final lesson

That too was a gift

People asked why return if it is gone

I said because honor returns to its roots

Even when the tree is no longer there

Attachment is not weakness clinging is

To love a place is to bless it in absence

Not chain your soul to its ruin

Time does not apologize

It walks through walls and names alike

And dares you to walk after it unshaken

So I built no shrine made no idol of the past

I carried it in discipline not despair

And let it sharpen me like a whetstone in the dark

That place is gone but I remain

And if I remain with wisdom

Then the place has not truly vanished