“If Only You Knew”
We met when life was simpler,
Ink on books, chalk on hands,
A boy with dreams and a girl who smiled
Too wide for what she’d later understand.

You loved another, and I stood by
Not knowing what I truly felt.
No whispers in my chest just yet,
Only silence where love slowly dwelt.

I helped you find your way back to her,
Not knowing what it meant to ache.
It wasn’t love I named back then,
Just something I couldn’t quite forsake.

We broke, we healed, you came again
This time with truths in hand,
You asked if I had felt for you,
But I had promised to another man.

Still, the truth is always there,
Beneath the masks we wore.
And when I saw you after time,
I knew I couldn’t lie anymore.

You said “Let’s try, just for a while,
If it breaks, we’ll walk away.”
But love’s not built in ifs and maybes,
It begs, it pleads, it wants to stay.

And I stayed, how I stayed
When words turned cold when you let go,
I begged for pieces of you back,
Even when you said “no more.”

We crossed lines with bodies bare,
But hearts still clothed in fear,
And I gave you more than skin and bone-
I gave you every tear.

You called it wrong, you walked away,
But only after I fell too deep.
Now I cry when no one sees,
And lose myself in silent sleep.

You said you needed space to grow,
A life without my ache
But why then pull me close one day,
And push me far the next, so fake?

You seem at peace like I’m erased,
As if my love was just a phase.
While I’m still here, a quiet mess,
Hurting from your fleeting touch, I confess.

But still, if ever storms arrive,
And you forget how to stand
Know there’s someone in the dark,
Who once held your trembling hand?

.    .    .