Mark me like you’ve never yearned,
Trace the paddles of space you’ve never turned.
Hold me close in the dark,
Like you’d never let me walk away —
Then disappear with your graceful attempts,
Like grey clouds over a clear blue sky,
Just minutes before my world turns dark.

Place your gentle palm on the harm you’ve named,
Feel the wounds with your own skin.
Pretend to soothe them while I search for your real embrace.
Never —
Never did I think you’d set our bridge ablaze,
Discreetly, before I could even blink.
You were gone, lost behind the flames.

You filled me up
With the tempting tokens of your arcades,
Cut me deep with the names you whispered
Where you assumed I’d never hear.
Never had I imagined
What lay behind the sheets when my warmth was out of reach.
While I was away searching bouquets to fill your heart,
You were already weaving yourself away
With the one who had already claimed it.

How are flowers romantic?
Why are bouquets considered fancy?
How do we see them as sweet, as pleasant—
symbols of love in our bonds—
when these lives themselves are torn
from the roots that held them whole?

We cut their stems,
judging what is perfect enough to give.
Yet when our own skin is slit,
we call it damage,
not beauty.

We hand each other lives already dimming,
beauty already faltering,
and it matters to none of us—
does it?

As days rush past,
where do these flowers go?
Wounded, drying,
abandoned on tables,
or worse, tossed away.

Once they sparked a bond,
risking their own.

Perhaps flowers should never
have breathed upon this earth.
For as long as beauty exists,
our hands will always reach to destroy it,
and still wonder why there is no more.

In a room full of other souls,
between dancing lights and floating noise,
six feet apart across the table,
sat two foolish people—
barely brave enough to hold each other’s gaze.

If you wonder why I didn’t look your way—
maybe you already knew; we did it on purpose.
Each time I turned away, my head would reel—
your smile didn’t just light the room,
it sparked the rooms behind my closed doors.

You took a few long strides past me,
pretending not to see.
I kept glancing down, pretending not to notice.
When I stepped outside I wished—
for a shadow in black fabric to follow,
to close that small distance, to meet my eyes,
to say what both of us only dared imagine.

I can’t erase these glimpses of you.
You give me smiles without a single word.
We don’t say each other’s names—
yet why does it feel like there’s a string at our fingers?
A pull that almost moves us, but never far enough.

I’ll keep this moment close to my chest—
awkward pride and all.
At least I know you saw me smile.
And I saw yours.

I felt like we knew each other.

Come with me—
don’t sleep, please stay.
For now, don’t fade into absence;
let this second count the way I pray.

Fill the silence—please,
help me stay.
Make a noise:
even a single chime of wind
would let my heart sway.

Don’t go yet,
like colours draining from a bouquet.
It’s dry and wounded,
but surely it can stay—right?

They stole you,
sold you to the heavens,
yet in my realm
you must remain.
You will stay—
though my soul shatters
each time I face that ruthless truth.

I can’t bear to watch the day
when I can’t fill the empty space
where once you lay.

My home stands in horror:
your breath no longer collides with my air.
My garden lost its flowers;
sunshine refuses to appear
the moment you were snatched
into the nimbus glare.

Along these aisles of fading souls
I hoped to walk beside you—
but you left before me.

I wish you stayed.
I wish you stayed.
I wish you still stayed
—here—with me.

Shine, with all your heart,
Move through places
Where my role is always torn apart.
Strip me bare, like a slave to pain,
Feed my soul
With your endless, shadowed flames.

Carve me slowly
With your tender, practiced lies—
Don’t call my name
Just to borrow my ears for your cries.

This bridge I let you cross for years—
It’s splintered now,
In ruins I can't piece clear.
A home once meant for you and me
Faded—like my limbs, my bones, my plea.

Save your tokens for her.
Save your ticks and times for her.
And if she dares to lie,
Keep her tucked beneath your pride.
Feel her warmth.
Be satisfied.

All I could’ve done for you—
You chose another’s hitches.
And all I couldn’t do—
Go whisper my failures into his wishes.

My heart still calls out
At every thought of her.
I can’t shut it down—
I just hide in silence, unheard.

My soul’s been shattered,
For you, in a thousand ways—
Because I think I still love you,
In the worst kind of way.

I fear—
I fear that I’m alone,
adrift, with no hands to hold,
no shelter, no place called home.

Will I make it?
Can I truly make it on my own?
Will I arrive before it’s too late,
or remain time’s forgotten candidate?

How do I walk this road?
I fear I’ll lose myself,
drown in the silence of my own world,
for I cannot carry this weight alone.

Will time embrace me,
or turn its face,
leaving me to watch the world move on—
while fear creeps into my bones,
echoing without end:
What if I can’t carry it alone?
What if I can’t?

I’m scared.
I’m scared that I’m alone.

I can’t believe this—
how could your heart not feel tangled?
Here I remain, left with the crumbs of you,
it’s killing me, softly,
like blades pressing slow against my skin,
and you didn’t even watch me bleed,
for you knew I would.

It tears my soul apart—
these blades were carved from your delicate hands I once kissed.
The words that cut deeper than any wound
fell from the same lips that whispered,
“I could never hurt you.”
Those eyes that now drift into emptiness
were once the world where mine found home.

The bow we tied—
how did it mean nothing to you?
How did you erase it,
as though it never was?
How could you love another
while our knot still holds?

Did you see a brighter world in their gaze?
Did their heartbeat echo louder for you than mine?
Were their arms warmer,
their smile stronger
than what I ever gave?
How did you do it?
I don’t know how you do it.

For I could never—
my soul locked your name in my chest
the day it found you.
I never thought I’d need a key,
but now the lock aches,
and I feel like a fool for you.