eulogy 3
“Don’t you dare fade out like that, you been quiet too long, I can hear the cracks. You don’t need to carry the weight alone, you still got a reason, a place, a home. I know it hurts — yeah, I see your eyes. You already said your silent goodbyes. But please, just breathe, for your girls, for me, for the love you built so carefully.”
“You think I don’t hear you? I do, I swear, but you’re already halfway gone somewhere. I felt it coming, that shift in your tone, you talk about ‘us,’ but I am standing alone.
I don’t drink, don’t numb, don’t run, don’t hide. Just bleed in quiet on the inside. No bottle, no needle, just a head too loud. A man too proud to say it out loud.”
“But they need you Dwight — your girls, your name. You are the calm in their storm, their solid frame. You taught them soft; you taught them true. Who’s gonna hold them if it’s not you? You think I won’t care once I walk away, you think your death makes it easier that way. But all it’ll do is tear through the floor, I’ll carry your ghost forever more.”
“You talk like love can cure what’s gone, but you’re leaving soon — I’ve known all along. I saw the look — the one you gave him, that future light where I don’t fit in.
I could stay and break slow in my chest, or I could go and let you rest. You’ll move on you’ll build again, but I’ll never stop being your almost-man.”
“Don’t say that don’t make it true, you think death means peace — but who heals who? You’ll trade your pain for mine instead, you’ll just pass the fire to my bed. Please, just hold one more day in your hands, stay for the girls, for the life we planned. You say goodbye, I say not yet — there’s still time to rewrite regret.”
“I wish I could, but the light’s gone dim, and everything hurts where loves been thin. This isn’t your fault - don’t wear my ghost, just know I loved you the very most.”
“You stay say, I say go, both of us bleeding, neither can show. Love was the fight, the war, the prayer, you begged me to live — I was already there.
Gate swing wide, tires hum low, night smell heavy, sky hung low. Two cars, one truth, headlights met, heartbeats talkin’ in a sillohoutte.
His nod — yeah he let me through, didn’t know what the next breath’d do. I felt it coming, that hush, that weight, time froze solid right at the gate.
One look — then the world broke down, air went still, no breath, gunshot sounds. Gravel shook, stars blurred, no words, just hurt. Shock hit first, like thunder close, my chest forgot what living knows. Everything folded, sharp, unreal, too much truth for the night to conceal.
Then the silence cracked — He moved, hope in his eyes, nothing left to prove. I stood there screaming that primal call, there wasn’t much he could do except prove to me that all this is true. I laid there begging the dark to give you back again. Seconds stretched, the stars didn’t speak, faith felt smaller, my knees went weak, he kept telling you to stay, I kept saying please, but the quiet answered both of these.
Now I live in that question still, caught between mercy and will. Wondering if somehow, some way, you heard me pray for one more day.
The sky turned soft, the dark turned kind, memories flickered through my mind. Faces, laughter, years gone by, all folding slow beneath the sky. Your voice was the last thing near, a sound half-lost, half-clear.
No more weight, no more war, just quiet I’d been waiting for.
Then light spilled through where shadow’s part, and peace moved in slow inside my heart. I thought of our mornings, coffee steam, our daughter’s laugh, that backyard dream. I wanted to tell you, you were enough, I just grew tired of being tough. If grace has hands, it found my face and pulled me toward a gentler place.
Now everything we were stands still — three ghosts circling the same hill. You carry the ache, he bears the blame, I wear the silence that has no name.
No one walked out untouched or whole, we just traded pieces of one soul. Three shadows stitched in the same refrain, bound by love, divided by pain.
When you stand in black, the air will change — that’s me brushing past, whisper-strange. Not gone, I just turned light, burning softer, out of sight. Don’t cry too long, don’t curse the sky, love don’t die, it just learns to fly. When the dark feels heavy, breathe my name — I’ll answer through the windowpane.
Not gone, not lost, not out of sight. I just became the haunting light.
713
Chloe