Walking in your shadow

Your boots still sit by the kitchen door

Laces tied the way you left them

I try to hear your voice in the floorboards

Only silence answers when I question

I walk the road you used to drive

Past the field where you taught me shifting

Replay your laugh

It blurs each time

Like an old tape always skipping

I’ve been walking in your shadow

On a path you couldn’t stay

Reaching out for what I can’t hold

Words I’ll never hear you say

I’m done drowning in the sorrow

Let your darkness end with you

I’m still walking in your shadow

But I’m walking toward the blue

Photos fade on the hallway wall

Smiles stuck in their own weather

I mouth your name

Then lose the sound

It slips right through like a feather

Some nights I sit in your old truck

Hands on the wheel where yours were resting

I let the quiet fill me up

Till my heartbeat does the confessing

I’ve been walking in your shadow

On a path you couldn’t stay

Reaching out for what I can’t hold

Words I’ll never hear you say

I’m done drowning in the sorrow

Let your missing swallow through

I’m still walking in your shadow

But I’m walking toward the blue

You left a weight I couldn’t carry

I tried to wear your hurt like skin

Now I leave flowers by the headstone

Then turn around

Breathe in

I’m still walking in your shadow

But the sun is on my face

I forgive the part of you that

Couldn’t ever find this place

I will laugh and I will stumble

I will love and break in two

I’m still walking in your shadow

But I’m living for me

(and a little for you)