Member-only story
Retrospective
A Poem
i think back to those early days of me and you,
how we curled up in a cocoon of words
as if the very rhythms of vowels and consonants
were our only forms of confession.
you shared the story of your heart,
one of many,
and i tore through the pages
as if i were ravenous.
i thought knowing you through
paragraphs or stanzas
would let me see the secrets you hid,
but i was so wrong.
the truth was i knew nothing
beyond the mask,
and i was mistaken for thinking
i would be any different.
it was so easy for you to become a ghost,
one of my many,
and i let you fade away inch by inch,
slipping through my fingers.
i wasn’t special enough for you,
hardly worth noting,
just another text in your history
that you’d soon forget.
and i left so many things unsaid
because i was afraid —
but who was keeping count anyway
for…
