Too Late
You resist,
but you will remember me
with each fallen leaf,
each brittle crack beneath your feet.
You will see me in the dying light,
in the shadows that stretch too long,
and you will wish
you had held on tighter.
It boggles my mind,
how effortlessly he enters your space,
how your laughter fades,
just enough for me to notice.
You think I do not sense it,
the way your words twist
and reshape themselves around him,
like you are building a different world
when he is near,
one I cannot quite reach.
Yet every day,
he takes what should be mine,
his presence invisible,
but felt in every word,
every glance,
and I am left here,
waiting in the silence
for the pieces of you
that he hasn’t yet claimed.
Forgive me for loving you so fiercely,
for binding myself to the image of you
that once danced in my dreams.
But know this:
you can wager on the stars,
bet on the turning of the heavens –
this heart will not open its door again.
No, not for you.