"To the Ashes Ive Left Behind"
an apology penned by Lyrikai Winterhart

I drink to the ghosts with salt on their lips,
To the men I left moored in a lovers eclipse.
Your names are a storm I dont dare to speak
Just echoes in harbors I haunted for weeks.

Forgive me, flames, that I lit with no end,
That I burned for warmth, not to bend.
Your eyes once held stars I couldnt claim,
But I kissed them all with borrowed flame.

I came like thunder, fierce and bright,
A tempest woman cloaked in night.
And oh, how easily I made you believe
That Id anchor my heart and never leave.

But I am the tide, untamed and cruel,
A pirate, a siren, a half-broken rule.
I wanted forever, then swallowed it whole
I cant stay long where Ive given my soul.

To the soldier with scars I couldnt trace
Im sorry I vanished without a grace.
To the poet whose verses we danced between
You deserved a love less serpentine.

To the soft ones, the kind, the brave
You dug too deep into a heart half-grave.
To the wild ones who dared to match my fire
We both mistook want for something higher.

I never meant to make you ache,
Or leave you weeping in my wake.
But sometimes a woman built of flame
Cant love without burning every name.

So heres to the wounds I didnt dress,
To the confessions I left wordless.
I carry your shadows, soft and true
And gods know, I never stopped mourning you.

Forgive me.
I wasnt meant to stay.
But I remember you.
Every
damned
day.

Penned by my hand on the 6th of Lupar, in the year 979 AF.