It's Still Life

4 of 27: Hollowmere – Joy that never belonged to you

I. The Banquet

Hollowmere is not the empty chair—
it’s the place setting that gleams regardless.
No one notices the crystal flute
you never sipped from,
the way your laughter lands
a half-beat late—
a moth batting at a window
it was never meant to enter.

Felreil counts these moments:
the forced smile in the family photo,
the toast you raise with a drink
you didn’t pour,
the way your hands memorise
the weight of belonging
without ever feeling it.

Hollowmere is exclusion,
polished to a cruel shine.

II. The Fire

It smells like perfume
on a stranger’s scarf;
like the sugar crust
on a wedding cake
you didn’t taste.

It’s the ghost of smoke
clinging to your clothes
after standing too long
near a bonfire
that warmed everyone—
but you.

Hollowmere doesn’t burn.
It preserves—
the way ice keeps roses
perfect
and dead.

III. The Ritual

You will perform it in mirrors:
practising grins like a language
you’re fluent in
but have never heard aloud,
smoothing your dress
for an event
that stopped needing you
hours ago,
whispering happy for them
until the words curdle
into something
that almost sounds
like truth.

Felreil doesn’t pity you.
He knows—
some silences are cages
with the doors
left open.

IV. The Aftermath

Hollowmere is not the leaving.
It’s the staying—
the way you linger
in the doorway
of a home
that never learned
your name,
the way you pocket
a party favour
you didn’t want,
the way the night
finally exhales
when you go,
relieved
to be done
with the pretence
of your inclusion.

V. Felreil’s Footnote

He finds it in ballrooms
after the music dies,
in the hollow of a child’s smile
when the birthday isn’t theirs,
in the way a crowd’s roar
can make a lonelier sound
than any silence.

He doesn’t collect it.
He lets it collect him—
until his shadow
is the only one
that fits you
perfectly—

the loneliest comfort,
the truest belonging.

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Some artwork is created using Midjourney AI, and is identified as such in the ALT text or captioned. Images are copyright and not to used without permission, which I willingly give when asked, and when not for commercial use. Imagery and poems/prose ©Misky 2006-2025.