Miss Unanswered Call

(From the Collection of Letters to Miss)

I pursued you, dear Miss no stranger’s smile,
Not with flowers or fanfare,
But with quiet texts
Sent into the void of night.

And I saw my screen light up,
And my skin shivered,
And it was all but the common stares,
It passed like a whisper I never wished to hear.

Days passed.
She replied with a distant “hey,”
A kindness so cold it burned.

And I,
I ached between those spaces,
Bending beneath the silence,
Hurting where hope used to live.

Still,
I clung to the frail thread of a dare...
Oh Miss, wish I’d see you but once,
To watch you once more,
Or just to see your smile.

Dear Miss, I cannot even touch your shadow in my dreams,
Because even in dreams,
Dear Miss, I’d die for just a handshake.

And so,
Miss, my heart splintered,
Silently,
Secretly into chambers
Echoing
With all the words never said.

I would’ve welcomed rejection;
A bitter “no” would have been a mercy.
But I couldn’t even ask.

Instead,
I sent a friend,
A coward’s emissary,
Bearing my trembling “hi”
Like it was worth anything.

She never called.
Of course not.
That hope was never mine to hold.

Her picture stayed and swayed,
Lodged in my mind like a thorn dressed in light.

I hated her for haunting me,
Hated myself for daring again,
Loved her more for not answering,
Hated her for being so beautifully silent.

And still,
This stupid heart
Kept crawling back,
Longing for more ache,
As is love baked under the kiln.

What emptiness.
What soft, unbearable futility.
What a priceless curse.

There my heart lies,
Untouched by the tremble I called affection,
While I..
I remain the fool,
Wounded in a war I never even fought properly.

And dear Miss never read my message.
You live with the echo.

You gave me a beautiful war
In the dead of night,
Where even now the mockingbird sings
Not in sympathy,
Where the beautiful stars mock me,
While my unanswered call lies desolate,

Yours truly again,
Mr Knight - Lost another battle as my own Adversary