Out-of-Office Draft

Your cubicle is just a hollow frame now They brought in someone new to fill the space I stare at spreadsheets, whispering your name now And tracing shadows where I saw your face The Keurig drips, but no one shares the laughter The breakroom's quiet since you signed away I'm stuck inside the before and the after Just trying to survive another day You moved uptown to chase a bigger mission A fancy title on the fourteenth floor But I'm still trapped in frozen indecision My hand is hovering above the door I draft a text, then delete the confession "I miss the way you used to mock my tie" It’s more than just a casual obsession But truth is heavy when you’re standing by If I speak up, do I break the design? Do I lose the only thread that keeps you mine? I’m dancing on the edge of "what we were" A quiet colleague or a desperate blur The sax is crying through the Rhodes piano keys I want to tell you, but I’m on my knees Afraid to hear you say we’re just a past tense So I keep drowning in your lovely absence Remember Fridays when the clock hit five? We’d walk to Union Square to catch the train That thirty minutes made me feel alive Now every commute is a quiet pain You texted yesterday to say you're thriving I wrote back "happy for you, kill it, friend" While deep inside, my foolish heart is striving To find a way to rewrite how we end Is it safer to just play the coworker card? To keep the boundaries and never push too far? Because if I tell you that my world went dark And you don't feel the spark... I lose the girl I used to know And I’ll have nothing left to show If I speak up, do I break the design? Do I lose the only thread that keeps you mine? I’m dancing on the edge of "what we were" A quiet colleague or a desperate blur The sax is crying through the Rhodes piano keys I want to tell you, but I’m on my knees Afraid to hear you say we’re just a past tense So I keep drowning in your lovely absence Just a past tense... Or could we be something more? Your empty desk... My quiet war.