Well it’s been just a year
but I have changed.
Your face is the same
for all I know
but if we met again
You wouldn’t know mine.

I am not prettier.
I am not tan.
I’m self-contained,
Quiet.

My silence holds a strength
you never saw in me.
My eyes no longer speak
but conceal.
My love, my loss
Of you, of you.

I do not ache
or see your face
behind these lids
these days.

You are still a part of me, though.
Always.
You shaped me.
I am grateful.

Do not be surprised
to see and not hear
the strength in my stare,
my quiet grace.
There is no smile
no written message
spread across my face.

Only if you cared,
back then,
enough to know my eyes.
Then you will see
old love
simmered now.
Just reverence.
For you, for us.
What used to be.