What Is and What Should Never Be

A fleeting moment of familiarity, a final glimpse of innocent love. It would have taken just a touch to change my years of regret. The fate of our loss was not sealed in that moment but I allowed it just the same. A step to the left instead of the right and the simplicity of that decision would never have been questioned. We’d still have the upward turn of lips, the gentle squint of adoration. You would know the touch of gentle fingers, exploring your face with a longing for curious discovery. The end was still to come, and had I known it in that moment, I would have embraced it, shared words that may have changed a decision made. A decision by you, or me, or someone we’ve yet to meet. There is sorrow in my unsatisfying farewell. My moment of truth is an admission of selfishness. And the regret of this loss cannot be neutralized by the lesson learned. There’s a place in my heart where lies a smile that will never again materialize. Only in a memory can I be happy to live moments with you. The choice not to speak has left me eternally silenced.