Not Forever

I wonder, sometimes, in silence and sighs,

What we might have been beneath kinder skies.

Not to change the past,

But to touch it, at last,

With gentler hands and unspoken goodbyes.

I still carry your laugh in the folds of my mind,

Like echoes of sun in the dusk left behind.

You linger in songs,

In coffee shop throngs,

In places I never thought I would find.

We were almost, but never quite whole,

A chapter half-finished inside of my soul.

And now when I am asked,

I do not cling to the past,

But I whisper, "We mattered. We played a role."

Not forever, no, that was not our fate.

But for a moment, we did not arrive too late.

We were hearts that aligned,

In a world unkind,

And loved like stars before they disintegrate.

---

P.S. Some love stories fade, yet leave their marks behind.

Healing does not come all at once. It begins in small, tender gestures.

If you are choosing softness for yourself today, I offer Aloe Lips with Jojoba, a lip balm to soothe what life leaves dry.

Kennedy Odhiambo