The seconds ticked away, long and pointless

But you didn’t look at me, your eyes on the floorboard,

My eyes felt heavy, like the rest of me,

As if silence had weight, and we were both carrying it.

The wind thrashed, outside the door,

The words hovered behind my teeth, persisting yet unfinished,

But they felt wrong, tasted not quite right on my tongue,

So I let them rot there, fruit I couldn’t name.

Instead I laugh, swallowing the weight now sitting in my stomach,

I walk away, the regret instant.

The unsaid words still sleep in my mind, a sentence I couldn’t share.

And some nights, I swear I hear them whisper back.

_“I miss you.”_