Unsure of you

I was almost there

almost close enough for my voice to find you

for the first time, truly find you.

But one day something shifted in your eyes,

a quiet storm I couldn’t name,

and I wondered if the warmth I’d felt

was something I had only dreamed.

What if our sweet smiles were just kindness?

What if the silence between us

was only ever silence?

What if you looked at me

not with wonder, but with curiosity

the way one watches something strange?

So I retreated. Folded myself inward.

Carried the distance like something I deserved.

But still

I miss you. I want you. I feel you.

And I am still here,

standing in the same soft place I always was,

only now with open hands

and a heart that no longer knows

what yours is trying to say.