The Almost Us

We were always almost—

almost a plan, almost a promise,

almost “come meet my friends,”

almost “stay the night.”

﹃﹄

You kept your toothbrush in your bag

like it was a secret weapon,

and I pretended not to notice

How you never left it behind.

﹃﹄

We took pictures, but not together,

two separate skies, same sunset,

sent with “look”

Like that was intimacy.

﹃﹄

You said, “Maybe next weekend,”

so many times

It became a season.

I started measuring time

in maybes and half-smiles.

﹃﹄

Even our kisses had commas—

pause, breathe, pull back,

as if love was a sentence

We didn’t want to finish.

﹃﹄

I told myself, slow is romantic.

Sometimes it is.

But sometimes slow is just

Someone holding the door

without letting you in.

﹃﹄

And I stayed in that hallway,

calling it forever,

because the echo sounded

close enough to home.