in the faces of its people,
in the quiet hum of its soul.
And though it hurts,
though the tears threaten to fall,
I will let myself remember.
I will let myself feel.
Because even in the pain,
there is love.
And love, like art, is eternal.
In the labyrinth of my thoughts, he waits
a specter, a fragment, a brother lost to time.
I am afraid to let him in, afraid to unravel the threads of memory,
because when I do, the ache rises like a tide,
and I must steady myself, clutching at the edges of my composure,
It is a part of me now, this grief,
a wound that will never fully close.
But perhaps, in these moments,
when I feel him close,
when I see him in the eyes of strangers,
he is reminding me that he is not truly gone.
He is here, in the art of this city,