Day three of my 100-poem series… sometimes the calendar moves, but our hearts stay behind, carrying the weight of absence, echoing in the spaces others fill with celebration.
Hurt Like This
Another year
empty space
this is just another day.
You all can celebrate your
holiday, cheer,
somewhere not near to me.
Can’t you see? This is just another
day to me.
Except if it were just a day
would it hurt like this?
Poet’s Note:
This poem leans into the quiet ache of holidays when they don’t feel joyful… that tension between the world’s celebration and your own emptiness can be sharp. I wrote it to honor that feeling, unfiltered, because acknowledging hurt is part of moving through it.
Some days carry weight that no calendar can explain… and some poems are just for naming it.
Whisper to the void it might whisper back