Between Bruises & Blooms

There are days
I almost convince myself
I’ve stopped looking for you.

Then a song begins,
or the sky turns the color
of evenings we never shared,
and somehow my heart remembers
before my mind does.

I don’t miss perfection.

I miss the ordinary things
we never got enough of—
coffee growing cold,
your voice breaking the silence,
the feeling that the world
was a little less heavy
because you were in it.

Love has always been strange to me.

It arrives softly,
then refuses to leave,
even when the door stays closed.

So I carry you
the way the moon carries the tide—
from a distance,
without asking permission,
without expecting anything in return.

If our story has another chapter,
I’ll meet you there.

And if it doesn’t…

Thank you
for reminding a heart
that had survived so much
it had forgotten
it could still ache
for something beautiful.