POETRY – MLMM #428

Hey, do you miss me?
The ache churns so slowly.
We found common ground,
but only after the fires.
The hard part is done.
Where you’d go?

I close my eyes
because yours won’t open.
The stillness is sharper now.
Colder.
Like it knows
what’s missing.

Time doesn’t pass here—
it gathers.
Cools around me,
wraps my spine like smoke.

You blinked once—
and left everything behind.
I don’t blame you.
But I still ask.

We were never perfect.
But in the spaces between the noise,
we held each other
like we meant it.
We were one —
not whole, just held.

Your memory sings to me softly—
what do I go?
What version of me survives
without the rhythm
of your breath beside mine?

I know you hide the words.
You are afraid to speak.
Don’t hide with me.
Your actions are so loud.

Even in silence,
you told on yourself.
Every absence,
every closed door,
every goodbye you never said
but lived.

Your side of the bed still curves.
Like you’re paused,
not gone.
But I know better.

A rainbow brushed the sky yesterday.
It didn’t stay.
Like you —
always near,
never quite here.

Are these words bound to fail?
Speak to me, hope, and follow through.
Don’t build a future in silence
and ask me to live in it.

My hope rests on every word you don’t say.
But I never told you
What I stood for.
Have I waited too long?
Did you leave thinking
I had nothing left to give?

The truth is,
I was afraid, too.
Of saying it wrong.
Of loving you louder
than you could stand.

If there’s anything beyond this,
I hope it’s not heaven.
I hope it’s just
You and me again,
quiet,
not pretending.
Present.
And finally
telling the truth.

I know you were right—
because my silence was gone.

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