“The One Who Missed Me”

CATEGORY

long distance

A letter I will never send

You came in softly,
Like someone testing the waters
not with your soul,
But with your shadow.

You offered attention in fragments,
Then called it "effort".
Sent me smiles with silence,
then wondered why I didn’t stay open.

I didn’t ask for perfection.
I asked for presence.
But when I gave you honesty,
You gave me distance.
When I gave you clarity,
you gave me deflection.

And still, I waited.
Not for you, but for the truth
to speak louder than your excuses.

I’ve been loved before, deeply.
By a man who saw the rhythm in my silence,
Who understood how I move
without needing a map.

He never feared my fire —
He stood in it with me.
He expected me to rise higher,
not shrink for his comfort.

So when you say,
“I never stopped showing interest,”
I wonder:
Is that what you call those empty echoes?
those delayed good mornings,
Those reels that replaced real conversation?

I’ve learned to call a thing what it is.
And this was almost something.
Almost doesn’t keep a woman like me.

So I’ll keep what I gave:
My honesty,
My grace,
My knowing.

And you...Well, you can keep the silence you mistook for safety.

Be well.
But not with me.