At first, I thought you were nothing— a place between the stars where light had simply forgotten to arrive. But every distant fire that passed beside you changed. Not enough for anyone to notice. Enough for me. I watched a silver line of light bend softly where you seemed to be. Another followed through the dark and curved toward what I could not see. No face, no voice, no answering flame— only the stars leaning slightly from their paths. And slowly I began to know the shape of your silence. I never knew that you were watching the quiet bending around me. I had no light to send toward you, no distant color you could see. The universe moved through my darkness, leaving no image of my name. And somewhere far beyond my knowing, you noticed what the darkness changed. I could not see you. I could not see you. Still, something there was touching light. Still, something far was shining. And neither of us knew that seeing was already not enough. I learned the shape of your silence from the way the stars would turn. From every ray that passed beside you, from every light that gently curved. I learned the distance of your brightness without knowing where you were. A warmth too far for me to follow, a song too distant to be heard. We had no eyes for one another. No words to cross the night. You knew me by the bending. I knew you by the light. Perhaps we never first discovered each other as we thought. Perhaps the space between two strangers knows them before they know. Perhaps what cannot be reflected can still be understood. Perhaps the absence of an answer can change the way light moves. Nothing touched. Nothing spoke. Still, something had begun. I learned the shape of your silence without ever seeing you. Every star that curved around you drew a line I could follow through. I learned the presence of your fire from a distance without end. Something I could never reach was already changing where I began. No promise. No orbit. Not yet. Only light learning gravity, and gravity learning light— from very far away. I never saw you. Still— you found my shape.
