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Poetry by Michael YapThe Inner World Collection
Signature Ten
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A quiet stone room where linen, breath-soft light and the trace of movement make the body present without making it identifiable.

What Grief Leaves Behind · curated edition

The Long Forgetting

A quiet reading

About 2 minutes · 5 stanzas

Begin poem
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Love is so short a flicker, a breath between lifetimes. You touched my hand, and the world rearranged itself to make room for a feeling I didn’t know was missing. It bloomed fast, wild, like stars collapsing into each other without apology.

But forgetting oh, forgetting is the slowest thing I’ve ever known. It lingers like perfume on a coat I can’t throw away. Like echoes in a room you haven’t stepped into for years but still own. Every sunrise forgets you just to remember again by sunset.

I’ve rewritten your name a thousand ways in silence. Burned your laughter into constellations I can’t unsee. And time time has not softened the truth, only carved it deeper: you were real. And you were brief.

They say we heal. But what they forget to mention is that love leaves fossils, not just scars. And I still trip on the bones of you every time I try to walk forward.

So yes love is short. But forgetting you? That’s a story I’m still writing in the quiet of every morning without you.

Take a moment before choosing what comes next.

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“Love is so short
a flicker,
a breath between lifetimes.
You touched my hand,”
The Long ForgettingPoetry by Michael Yap
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Reading and edition context

This curated edition is shared as personal artistic expression, not medical, financial or relationship advice. Sacred names and traditions are approached with respectful poetic or devotional context.

Narration is off in this release.