The Other Man
There’s a part of you I can’t touch,
a corner of your world
where another man resides,
taking his daily dose of your time,
your thoughts,
your smile.
I watch from the edges,
silently tracing the outlines
of what I cannot control,
the space where I am not enough.
He fills the air around you,
like smoke lingering after a fire,
and though I try to breathe past it,
it clings to every moment.
if I could look in your eyes, he is there
a flicker when you think I’m not looking,
a quiet absence
when you should be here with me.
What does he give you?
I wonder,
and it tears at the seams of my heart,
fraying the edges of the love
I thought was ours.
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.
