Love Poem: When Deprived of Your Love
Jay Narain Avatar
Written by: Jay Narain

When Deprived of Your Love

Who do I become, when your shadow fades? 
 Not a man, but a map with the roads erased— 
 A shell with echoes where heartbeats once played, 
 A dusk without promise, the sun’s warmth betrayed. 

I become the silence between the stars, 
 Wandering empty, bearing invisible scars. 
 Each breath a question, unanswered, unheard— 
 The world still turns, but it spins out of word. 

My laughter dims into distant rain, 
 Memories bloom, but they taste like pain. 
 I am not whole—I am the absence of light, 
 A clock that ticks only deep in the night. 

The mirror denies me; I’m ghost in the glass, 
 A soul made of stillness that no prayers pass. 
 Without your compass, I falter and roam, 
 No place is shelter, no house is home. 

But even as I unravel, piece by piece, 
 I cradle the ruins, refuse the release. 
 For to be broken by love is to still have known 
 A fire so bright, it burned to the bone. 

And maybe, just maybe, the ashes remain— 
 A whisper of hope in the hollow of pain.