09/08/2026
The Room Where You Won’t Wake Up 🌙🐾
You are still here.
I know because the room still feels like you.
It hasn’t changed its shape
since the last time you moved in it.
I stay close, like I always do.
At first, I thought you were just resting
the way you sometimes do when the light is soft
and the day forgets to ask for anything.
So I waited.
Because waiting is something I understand very well.
The house is quiet, but not wrong.
Quiet is normal when you are near.
I curl beside you
in the place I always choose—
close enough to feel safe,
close enough to be ready
when your hand remembers me again.
Your hand is still warm sometimes.
Not moving.
But warm.
So I stay.
I press my head gently against you
like I do when I want you to know I am here.
You don’t answer the way you usually do.
But that is fine.
Sometimes you take longer than I do.
I keep watch.
The window changes its light.
The shadows stretch and shrink
like slow breathing the house is doing on its own.
I do not leave.
Because this is where you are.
Food is brought and taken away.
Water is replaced.
People come in and speak in soft voices
that do not belong in the way your voice belongs.
I don’t listen to them.
They don’t understand the way I do.
They keep trying to move me gently,
but I return.
Because you are still here.
I lie down again.
I close my eyes sometimes.
Not for long.
Because I don’t want to miss it
when you finally decide to move again.
Days become something I notice only through the light.
Still, you do not get up.
But you are still here.
I know because I am still beside you.
And I would know if you were not.
Cats do not measure absence the way we do.
They measure presence by closeness, warmth, and habit.
So when someone they love no longer moves,
they do not understand endings—
they simply remain
where love last made sense.
And wait for the world to become familiar again.