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“To the Woman I Once Called Friend”

I walked beside her in silence today,
Not as the girl who broke — but the one who sees.
No truth passed my lips,
but it screamed behind my ribs.

She laughed — unaware — and my heart cracked,
because I know what it feels like
to be the last one to find out
your world was never real.

I could have told her.
But today, I chose grace,
chose to carry what I could not undo
with hands open, not with blood.

I was once fooled too —
by a man who wore honesty like a mask,
who knew our friendship
and still pressed his lips against betrayal.

I cannot take back the nights.
I cannot rewrite the sin.
But I can walk beside her
with no illusions in my breath.

And maybe that’s how the universe heals:
Not in confession,
but in quiet atonement —
in choosing to love gently
what you once helped break.

I see her.
And I ache.
And I swear, I will never
be blind again.


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