His Smile, Not Mine

I watched him laugh beneath the sun,

A sound so light, a soul undone.

The way his lips curled at the edge—

A joy I never had to pledge.

His smile, it danced on someone’s joke,

A spark that never once he spoke

To me, or in my presence stayed—

It flared for others, then it swayed.

I memorized it all the same,

Each glint, each grin, each silent flame.

A thousand times, I dreamed it mine,

But dreams, like stars, don't often shine.

He smiled for her, for them, for skies,

For open roads and firefly nights.

But never once did it appear—

That fleeting joy, when I was near.

Still, I would write him into lines,

Into my poems, into signs.

Though truth, like time, would not align—

It’s his smile now...

Never mine.