Parallel Hearts (Poem)

We meet as echoes, years apart,

Two lives reshaped, two restless hearts.

You speak in tones I’ve never known,

Yet something in me feels like home.

Your hair is flecked with storms and light,

Your voice no longer soft with might.

And still, beneath the shifting skies,

I find the boy behind your eyes.

You quote me words I once let go—

A fleeting truth from long ago.

You held them close, while I forgot.

They shaped you more than I had thought.

No, I don't fit where you belong.

Your days are wide, your roots are strong.

And I won't twist to match your shape—

Our lives were drawn with no escape.

Still, in that space where we just are,

No distance feels too deep, too far.

A laugh, a glance, and time suspends—

No start, no end. Just means. Just bends.

We owe each other no demands,

No future written, no joined hands.

But in the hush, where truths don’t speak,

You touch the parts I never seek.

Love isn’t always loud or near.

Sometimes it simply waits right here—

Not needing more, not reaching back,

Just standing still upon its track.

We’ll walk apart, not side by side,

Yet feel each other in the tide.

And maybe that is love’s refrain:

A quiet pulse that still remains.

So no, we don’t belong, not quite—

Not wrong, not lost, not made to fight.

You are not past. You are not “then.”

You are the place I visit when

I need to feel that something is true

Still lingers, quiet, kind—and you.