Once we laughed in golden light,
Hearts unguarded, spirits bright.
Now silence treads where joy had been—
A quiet war, a ghost within.

I watched you fade behind the lies,
A whisper turned to sharpened knives.
They twisted truth with careful art,
And rumors ripped our bond apart.

No fight, no farewell, just the cold—
The warmth replaced by stories told.
You didn’t ask, you didn’t stay,
You let the smoke steal me away.

I search for faces I once knew
In halls now haunted, empty too.
The echoes of our shared old days
Drift further into ashen haze.

How fragile trust, how fast it falls,
Like writing lost on crumbling walls.
And friendship, once a steady flame,
Burns out, and no one speaks your name.

So here’s to all the could-have-beens,
To vanished love, and phantom friends.
A heart once full now beats alone—
A castle built, then overthrown.