i won’t touch it

but i won’t bury it either

this feeling

rose quiet and uninvited

like breath on cold glass

clear, delicate

already fading

but still there

i know the rules

you didn’t write them

but you wear them

and i respect that

even as it wrecks me

so i don’t reach

i don’t ask

i don’t trespass

but i also don’t pretend

instead

i place this truth gently

between us

not like a weapon

but like a photograph

set down without comment

real

but untouchable

you are the only thing

i have ever wanted to hold

without needing to be held back

and that

is the ache i carry

not the silence

not the boundary

but the knowing

that if it were allowed

if it were safe

you might have let me

and still

i sit with it

not to fix it

not to solve it

just to feel it breathing beside me

this quiet thing

this impossible warmth

that never asked to be named

you fade into me

without touching me

and i stay

just long enough

to know it was real

then let the silence

close around it

softly

like a door

left unlocked

but never opened