Glass Between Us

I passed by the café window,

a laugh I didn’t own spilled out,

bright and sharp as broken glass.

There they were—close, faces lit,

smiling at someone who wasn’t me.

Light pooled around them,

a warmth I couldn’t touch.

Reflected back, my own shadow

smudged against the glass,

a witness to a love story

where I didn’t have a line.

The weight of watching crushed down,

a silent crack in the day,

a heart folding itself quietly

into the space left behind.