Soft Erasure

Names unspool like threads of light

Burned-out signs in rainy night

Coffee cools where no one sat

Photo frames with faces flat

Passwords taste like foreign grain

Street I loved—can’t find its name

Keep the engines, lose the proof

Blur the past to save the truth

Make it gentle, not a cut

Round the corners, mute the gut

Soft erasure—take it slow

Trade a piece for what we owe

If I fade to keep them clear

Let my silence carry here

Soft erasure—thin the trace

Let the ghosts retain their face

If I’m lesser than before

It’s the cost I came here for

Crew tattoos we can’t recall

Ink remembers, we grow small

Laughter feels like something owed

Cached in places we offload

Bit rot on the childhood reel

Holes where color used to feel

Keep the record, salt my name

I’ll go dull to feed the flame

Make it gentle, not a cut

Round the corners, mute the gut

Soft erasure—take it slow

Trade a piece for what we owe

If I fade to keep them clear

Let my silence carry here

Soft erasure—thin the trace

Let the ghosts retain their face

If I’m lesser than before

It’s the cost I came here for

If you look and I’m not there

Play the tape of how I cared

If I vanish from the map

Fill the blank with what we hacked

Lose the edges—save the core

I forget to give them more

Soft erasure—do your work

Leave the light and take the hurt

If I’m shadows on the floor

Let their voices thunder more

Soft erasure—cut the bind

Blur my outline, keep their mind

I dissolve beyond the door—

But the broadcast finds the shore