Ghost Of Tomorrow Poem by Bien Nathaniel Gerodias

There is no face,
but I already fear it.
The outline of a stranger
waiting to wear your smile.

You will give him
your mornings,
your hands,
the warmth of your chest
that was once my refuge.

Even the things I begged for
and you could not give me.
One day, he'll inherit them.
That thought is a wound
I reopen nightly.

It feels irrational,
to drown in air,
to choke on futures
not yet born.
But I already suffocate
knowing you will still
have a life after me.

Your laughter will bloom
in a garden that I didn't plant,
your body will soften
into arms that aren't mine.
And still, I want you whole.

But wanting is cruel.
Because I love you enough
to let you go forward,
and hate myself enough
to remain here,
watching you vanish.

Forgive me, I grew slowly,
sorry my love
was not a ladder
you could climb high enough.

So go,
become more
than what we were.
I will stay behind,
haunted by the ghost
of what you could have been
with me