A Little Life, A Thousand Longings

Life is small — fragile as a flicker of light in a restless wind —

yet inside me lives an ocean of unfinished desires.

Dreams crowd my chest like birds that have never learned how to land.

Time moves quickly, indifferent,

but my longings refuse to shrink with it.

The world is full of people.

Voices everywhere. Faces everywhere.

Crowded streets, crowded rooms, crowded timelines.

Yet not one hand pauses long enough

to feel the quiet tremor in my pulse.

There is no one who truly understands.

Plenty of humans —

but so little humanity.

Sometimes the ache in my heart rises to my throat,

begging to be spoken,

asking for release.

But to whom should I confess it?

Who has the patience to sit beside invisible pain?

The one closest to my heart —

the one whose name lives softly in my prayers —

remains unaware of the storm within me.

Near in distance,

distant in understanding.

And so I carry it all —

this brief life,

these endless longings —

silently.