Hide Me, I Lov

Dear You,

I still can't look at our photos together
without that familiar ache catching in my chest.
I miss you —— not constantly,
but when I do, it crashes in waves.
It's not a simple missing.
It's that bone-deep longing for something I never truly had,
but once wished so desperately for.

You told me from the beginning
there was no forever in us.
You were honest.
And I... I was hopeful.
I believed that —— maybe —— if I just loved you enough, you'd stay.
You didn't. And it almost broke me.

Now, years later, we still talk from time to time.
And I pretend it's nothing.
I pretend I'm fine.
But every time your name appears,
I feel a thousand cuts beneath my skin.
Because it still hurts ––
Not because I want you back,
but because a part of me never really let you go.

You've moved on.
I'm building something new, something better.
But still..
there is a quiet place inside of me
where your name still echoes.

I'll never send this.
You'll never know.
But my love for you, though softer now,
though quieter now,
will live with me —— always.
Not in bitterness.
Just in memory.

Yours, once and somewhere still,
Me