I think I would notice your eyes first
not because they are different
but because they still believe
in things I had to bury
to keep moving

you would stand there
with your questions unbroken
holding time like it hadn’t yet learned
how to take

and I
I would hesitate
not out of shame
but out of the quiet terror
of being seen
by someone who still expects me
to become everything

would I tell you
how the world softens you
by first teaching you where it hurts

or would I let you keep
your unspent light
your reckless hope
that hasn’t yet learned 
the weight of gravity

maybe I would just sit beside you
no warnings
no apologies
and let the silence say
you were never wrong
for believing it could be beautiful

and I am still trying
to prove you right

* Just a letter to my younger self *