Tunnel Vision

While the smoke curled quiet,

I found a thought I didn’t know I’d lost

I was starving for pieces of you

that were never missing,

just tucked away in places

you weren’t sure I could reach.

I don’t need you to hand me forever

like a promise carved in stone.

I just want to hear the dreams

you’re scared to say out loud.

Because I think we learned

two different ways to love through the unknown.

I try to name every shadow,

trace every line,

believing if we understand the storm

we can walk through it together.

You hold your hopes behind your teeth,

afraid that speaking them

turns them into something you owe me.

And maybe that’s the sweetest tragedy

both of us reaching for safety,

both of us trying not to hurt each other,

and somehow building walls

with the same hands we use to care.

I’m not asking you for certainty.

I’m not asking you to know the ending.

Just leave the door cracked.

Let me sit beside the parts of you

that are still figuring it out.

I was never looking for a guarantee.

I was only asking

to be let in.