Like children,
we chased each other around this life —
a game of hide and seek.

Catching each other’s glimpses
in corridors and daydreams,
your smile kept me chasing,
and your voice kept me lucid.

You hid, and hid,
so I would seek you out;
and when I unraveled the curtain,
you weren’t there.

The promises we made
now live on as echoes in the dust.
The walls are my witness,
and the bruises are my alibi.