A Lover's Lament

By Mallika Chandrasekhar

When you left

I thought it was just a void

Or at best a wound

That would heal in time

Little did I know

That your leaving me

Was neither a void nor a wound

But an abyss

A crater in my core

That nothing could fill

Love songs didn’t help

Nor did self-help mantras

Moments just dragged on

Listlessly, endlessly

This vast vacant space

Your absence created something

That I can’t fill or forget

Sometimes I think

I would rather have suffered a wound

Or experienced a dark void

But this depthless pitiful pit

Is beyond me

Is this what a lover’s leaving means?

A lament that engulfs my heart

Grief that gnaws the sinews of my body

Moments filled with a kind of winter weariness

An overpowering sense of loss and loneliness

Words can’t fill or equal this emptiness

When you left

Nothing remained behind

Not even me

Not even me.

By Mallika Chandrasekhar