i am less than i was a soft subtraction day by day breath by breath the outline thins a shadow, never whole only what the light allowed— cast along stone walls, folded across quiet places where no one looked too closely but the light dims now not all at once more like dusk forgetting to become morning and i dissolve along with it there is fear— a quiet one like something watching from behind the curtain not cruel, just waiting yet the hush that greets me is not unkind cool as pressed linen settling over skin familiar, almost as if it always knew i would end here the dark speaks without sound and i lean toward it not because it promises but because it doesn’t to be nothing— not gone just untroubled— there’s a beauty in that still i delay hovering in the threshold like breath held just before the name is spoken not staying but not yet gone a pale echo still moving where the light used to be