The Space Between Us

I used to read your silence like a receipt counting what you meant by what you didn’t say coffee gone cold on the table by the sink your keys in the bowl, my hand in the way You’d say “I’m fine” and mean, “don’t ask me twice” and I’d lean in close like I could translate steam but the room kept bending where the corners met and I lost my place in the middle of the scene I’m losing control in the space between us in the air between the lines you move, I reach, then I overreach and call it keeping time I keep one foot on the floor, one foot in the fallout trying to stay inside but every small thing says what it says and I hear it as goodbye There’s a shirt on the chair, half inside out your charger plugged in like you still might stay I talk too fast when the door shuts soft like speed can patch the gap you made I map your moods to the weather app like pressure drops could explain your stare but we don’t live in numbers or neat little charts we live in the mess of a room and a stare I keep writing us smaller so I can hold it one clean line, one neat excuse but the truth keeps spilling past the margin and laughing at what I reduce You don’t need a storm to tear this open sometimes it’s just a chair that squeaks a glass left dry, a text left read and the whole damn language slips its leash I’m losing control in the space between us in the air between the lines you move, I reach, then I overreach and call it keeping time I keep one foot on the floor, one foot in the fallout trying to stay inside but every small thing says what it says and I hear it as goodbye Say less I heard enough the room is loud when distance speaks I blink, you fade I hold, you bend we keep arriving at the wrong end I’m losing control in the space between us in the air between the lines you move, I reach, then I overreach and call it keeping time I keep one foot on the floor, one foot in the fallout trying to stay inside but every small thing says what it says and I hear it as goodbye