Three Simple Words

Three Simple Words
Lan Xu

You see her.
It’s been three months.
You still miss her.
She looks happy.
She’s dancing to a song
playing through her headphones.
You walk past her.
Your eyes avoid hers
because it would hurt too much
to see her plain brown eyes
that turn to golden honey under sunlight
and sparkle when she smiles
and you look down
and see your favorite song playing on her phone.
She sung it for you
the night
you fell in love with her
before she left you.
“Not even the Gods above
Can separate the two of us
You and
“I”
‘m sorry.”
Those words were the last she whispered.
Those words echoed throughout your thoughts for weeks,
haunting,
numbing,
breaking
you.
Did she mean it?
She wouldn’t have been holding his hand
two days later
if she meant it.
She was hard to decipher.
Perhaps you never understood her.
Did all those nights spent
confessing your secrets and dreams
and love
mean nothing?
What did she mean when she said
“Someone can be who you want
but not who you
Need.”
But you were never scared to need her
because to you,
she was a safe haven.
Like the warmth of a fireplace
to shelter you from winter’s frost
or a cabin
to protect you from the rain,
she was your safe
Space
is an empty area,
like your heart once she’d left.
Boundless,
like your love for her.
Intangible,
like she was to you, as if
she was not quite real.
Cosmic.
She was ethereal.
And like a silent ghost,
she vanished,
leaving you with three simple words:
I Need Space.
I Love You.