Gift for Me (Joseph) – new verse
Soft as the hymn that your mother once hummed,
I keep every note in the curve of my lungs;
streetlights are angels that guard where you walked,
their halos still flicker on corners we stalked.
I open the box that the skyline returned—
inside, just the echo of prayers never heard;
I wear it like armor, invisible, free,
every lost breath a gift you left for me.