There was the cat, asleep on the couch
As I walked in through the door.
The TV sat where it always does,
Black screen watching me go through the room.
The walls a pale yellow, just as they
Were yesterday, and will be tomorrow.
My kitchen still is stuffed with those
Things I bought at the store yesterday,
And my furniture sits undisturbed
Everything where I left it.

Except for one thing.
Or rather, one person.
You took your smile from my house
You took it with you when you left.
That laughter I used to love
And now the house is silent.
The sounds of shuffling feet
I can't get my mind around the fact
That they are now only my own.

Nobody hears when I cry out
Though I imagine that somehow
You still can. The emptiness is
A place I wish I could leave
But not the way you did.
No, not the way you did.

Every morning my alarm still
Goes off, with one less person
To hear it. I get up alone, I leave
Alone, and I come home alone.
Each tick of the clock is another
Second spent in a lonely house
Pent up in my own mind.