Something was off.

I could tell in the way he spoke to me; his words once dripping in tenderness, now laced with a monotone drone, no more glee, no longer carefree. I could tell in the way he looked at me; his eyes wandering, finding distractions, oceans away, glassy and grey. I could tell by the way he touched me, or failed to, anyway; his back to me in the shadows of the night, no hand around my waist as we strode side by side, no caress of my breast as we lay chest to chest. I could tell by the silence that swallowed us whole; no more banter, no more laughter, no more stories, no more glory.

And it tugged, gnawed and chewed at my heart, its strings, for I didn’t know I craved these things, didn’t realize how much they fed into our being; a simplicity, a synchronicity, now erased from our entity. Sadness ripples through my every part, as we lie together, yet oh so apart and I wonder what can be done, when two are no longer one.

He once said he loved me to the moon and back and I wondered how much farther there was for him to go; now I know, it was I who was too slow, who took advantage of his glow, and so I sit, shaken, and sadly mistaken, as our curtains draw to a close.

Written by Rebecca Besnos
image: Lovers by Lorenzo Scudiero