in a single moment, the air shifted,
a pause divided us like halves of a whispered thought.
twice I looked back, unsure if the weight was mine or yours.
the path curved subtly, three strides into the unknown.

words gathered like constellations,
four faint stars too dim to guide me.
a breath fell, quiet as a fifth note,
lost in the unplayed melody of your silence.

shadows stretched their six-arm embrace,
holding nothing but absence,
seven steps echoed against stone —
I didn’t know whose they were.

time unraveled, caught between eight threads of memory,
fraying into a ninth and final ache.
by the tenth grace, i knew.
You had already turned away..