The Bear that Wears Your Name, a poem

What's Left Wears Your Name

They took the cloth you wore

and made it into something

small enough to hold in two arms

instead of missing you with empty ones.

Your name is still stitched there.

BENKE.

Quiet now.

Just resting where your heart used to be.

I don't know if a bear

can hold a person...

but I know it's soft

where you used to be soft,

and some nights that's enough.

The camouflage isn't hiding anything.

It's just keeping something safe...

the way you used to keep things safe

for the people you loved.

I set it where I can see it

first thing in the morning.

Not instead of you.

Just... something warm

in the space you left behind.

Some nights I hold it

and it feels a little like

you're still letting me.