you weave my face into your days and fear you left me with nothing but empty air. but my darling, i caught every fragment of the world you placed into my hands. i deciphered every line of tenderness you cloaked in your hesitation. through those muted rituals, i heard your silent language whispering that i mattered. i knew it then, and carrying that unspoken truth while being forced to walk away is the loneliest kind of heartbreak i must now endure. ​now, our digital sanctuaries are gone, and your ”good morning” texts have dissolved into the deep of the night. but know that our sky has not fractured. when a sudden warmth wraps around my shoulders, i know it is the phantom throb of your silent prayers reaching across the distance. you loved me without metrics, giving everything not because you expected me to stay, but because your love refuses to be measured. that is the most magnificent, shattering truth i will ever hold. ​we are two girls forced to turn our backs to one another before the word ”us” could ever be sanctioned. but if your unbroken love must now masquerade as silence just to survive, let my love do the same. your care has not lost its way; its home is right here, locked securely within the secret we keep from a world that wasn’t ready. ann.