Lost

- Rift: Part I - Poem XV -

We met in May, where sunlight kissed the paned glass,

A coffee shop alive with clinking spoons

I never thought a moment would surpass,

The way you smiled that ordinary noon

Your voice was low, a song I couldn’t place,

Your eyes were restless, searching, kind, and new

And though the world kept moving at its pace,

The hours bent themselves around us two

That summer bled into a sweeter fall,

With midnight drives and songs that made us whole

By winter nights, I thought I had it all,

A sacred trust, a binding of the soul

We built a house of words on fragile ground,

A fortress made of promises you swore

Each “I’ll change” became a softer sound,

Until I learned those vows were nothing more

By June next year, the curtain had been torn,

You cheated, lied, and laughed it all away

And left me standing, hollowed out, forlorn,

A broken prayer beneath the light of day

You can change your profile picture,

You can change your face,

But you can’t erase the fracture,

Or rewrite this place,

You said you’d change,

Then went and did the opposite,

Said you’re stuck in your ways,

You told me that before you quit,

You're a shell of who you used to be,

You couldn’t even call,

Couldn’t even be bothered for me,

Your words filled with vitriol,

We can’t come back from this,

All you’ve acquitted and all you’ve done,

There’s only one version of you I miss,

I really thought you were the one 

The boy I met is gone, I know it well,

Replaced by one who couldn’t keep his word

Yet still, my memory casts a fragile spell,

A ghost of you, the future never blurred

I’ll keep the version that was kind and true,

The one who asked for creamer with a grin

That boy was mine, if only as a view,

Before the weight of lies came crashing in

And though I know we’ll never love again,

Though all you lost will never be returned

I’ll carry May, the moment we began,

The only part of you that’s never been blurred

So let the years collapse, let our stories fade,

Let silence take the space where love once crossed

For even in the ruins we have made,

I’ll always have the you I found, then lost