Your Silence, Your Loss

With impending strain day by day you deny

ever having loved me, but it's a lie,

for in the flutter of your lashes and your warm blush

I hear all the words you promised to hush.

You try with sincere eagerness to turn,

but I notice the way your skin will burn

when I barely brush against the back of your hand,

watching you struggle to maintain command.

Every part of my whisper you lean close to hear

though I'm not speaking to you, and yet in fear

you retreat to the sideline faking comfort,

unaware of how uneasy you look, and hurt.

My beckoning to you goes by in a wave,

pretending you're busy, but the feeling is grave,

because the tension in your chest grows only deeper,

and the confidence you had becomes even weaker.

I laugh beside you openly as welcoming as can be

to show you there is no reason to act so shyly,

and yet the tension in your jaw expresses the seriousness

of how severely you refrain to hold what you long to confess.

Covering as much as you can, but shaking still,

making me wonder why you refuse to let your secret spill

thinking maybe it's my fault, maybe I'm lacking,

but when I glance away from you, I sense your aching.

From a distance your stare explains everything;

the uncertainty inside your heart complicating

the thoughts in your mind, the common intelligence

of fighting for what you love no matter the expense.

And yet you linger barely in my reach

like a lost child waiting for me to take your arm and teach,

but this is life, and some lessons you learn on your own,

and so if you desire me, take me alone.

Years and years go by- my patience taken for granted,

spending countless days without a kiss, having waited,

but you kept walking past- your love never came across,

and so I can only say, your silence was your loss.