Cold Stare

We stayed up until the streetlights died out

Sitting in the dark while you let every defensive reflex fail

No persona, just your voice shaking as you gave up the things you swore you would take to the grave.

You held my gaze until the air ran thin

Letting me see the hollow corners you hide from everyone else.

I did not flinch

I took all of it, met you in the wreckage and pushed all my chips into the center

I laid down every guard I had left because I thought we finally broke the loop

I thought the lock had finally turned for good.

Days later the temperature dropped to absolute zero

You flipped the circuit so fast the room was still ringing

Back to the monotone vacant stare

The sterile politeness you use on strangers at a counter

You walk past me with your shoulders locked looking straight through me like we never tore the seams open

Like you never sat on the floor terrified of your own honesty

You did not pull back because I failed you.

You panicked the second you realized you were fully seen

Devotion terrified you more than being isolated ever could

So you retreated behind the barricade

Wiping down the fingerprints and rewriting the script

Until you convinced yourself it was just a restless night that meant nothing.

Now I am the only one left standing in the crime scene

Stuck carrying the full weight of a bond you decided to delete

Holding onto an open door that you slammed from the outside

You hit the reset button just to keep your hands on the wheel and I am

left choking on the cold static.

Watching you act like you never broke down in the dark.