Silence is defined by the Merriam-Webster dictionary as, "the absence of sound or noise."

The Oxford Dictionary defines silence as, "the complete absence of sound."

Macmillan Dictionary terms silence as, "complete quiet."

To me, silence is defined as the absence of you.

Silence is all I hear everywhere I go since the day that I lost you. There is no more happy music, no more laughing voices, no more smiling faces, no more blatant opportunities laid out on a yellow-brick road... There is silence. And that is all.

Silence is the only thing you left behind when you took that long drive far away from where our love began. You took with you all of the laughs and tears and light that made up every one of our days together. You took away the sound of happiness as the sun rises, the sound of humility as the moon circles the sky and the sound of beauty as the stars twinkle or the rain falls. You took away the sound of my beating heart because you took my heart with you when you left that day. Sometimes I don't even know how I'm alive.

The silence of the rooms I'm in sicken me to no end. All I can hear are the sounds of our memories. The rain falling like it did the day that you left. The way you once told me how you'd love me forever. The sound of your heart while I laid on your chest. The sound of your breathing as we slept together through the night. The sound of your beautiful soul living its passions through your body. Now I hear none of this. Because all I can hear is the complete silence that surrounds me. The silence that you used to break with your heartfelt words and your beautiful laugh.

And all I can see through this silence are the images of what was and what was supposed to be. I see the future we planned together every day while I walk through the places that make up where our past lies. The places we were, the things we experienced, they are all still there. The stores we shopped in, the places we sat and talked, the restaurants we ate in... They all still exist. People go to these places every day. I go to these places every day. I'm imagining you go to these places every day. But somehow, they are filled with so much silence and in that silence, reaps so much pain. The pain of seeing what was and what might have been. Children laugh in these places, memories are still made in these places, friends enjoy these places yet when I'm there, all I can hear is the silence.

I do not see joy, I do not see hope, I do not see opportunity and I do not see happiness. I wonder if I have gone mute to the beauties of the world that we hear through our ears, see through our eyes and feel through our hearts. Have I become blind, deaf and emotionless? Have I become what everyone fears becoming? A lost soul that should have died long ago yet continues to live through endless days of pain?

Silence is what you left me with. The world is quiet but it is not peaceful. In fact, it is horrific, an ugly place that I am unable to close my eyes to, plug my ears from, and pull my heart out of.

I can't hide from silence.