Thin Glass

Distance speaks louder than words,

louder than any empty vow you ever laid down.

You thought silence would keep me waiting,

thought absence could hold me in place.

But silence is its own confession,

and you carved your truth in the space

where your presence should have been.

I learned early to stop believing your promises.

They were thin glass,

pretty enough in the light,

but shattering the second I touched them.

You wanted me to pretend they were steel...

but I heard the crack every time you spoke.

Two sides, two faces,

a blade that cuts whichever way served you best.

And you thought I wouldn’t notice.

I did.

I always did.

You tried to shape me into something smaller,

something tame,

a softer version you could hold without burning.

But I am not a flame you pocket.

I am the wildfire you cannot contain.

And when you left me in silence,

all you did was free me to remember that truth.

You chose distraction,

you chose shallow hands,

you chose the easy mirage over depth.

Others gave you what you thought you craved,

surface thrills to quiet the ache inside you.

But you will learn

mirages dissolve.

And when they do,

you will choke on your own emptiness.

Don’t imagine I’ll be there when that happens.

Don’t think for a second

you can wander back like the door was ever left open.

It isn’t.

The lock has rusted shut.

You slammed it yourself when you chose absence.

And in that space,

I built myself higher than you can reach.

Now I rise past the ruins you left.

Every breath I take carves me sharper,

every step pulls me further beyond

the weight you tried to press on me.

I’ve become steel where you left cracks,

fire where you left ashes.

I do not need your half-measures,

your vanishing acts,

your shallow devotion dressed as loyalty.

If collapse comes for you

and it will..

I will not sweep your ruins.

I will not cradle your shattered face.

This time you will sit in the wreckage alone,

because you taught me patience,

and patience taught me release.

I will nod,

I will smile,

I will remain cordial,

but I will not carry you.

That burden was yours to keep.

Once, I chose you.

I saw something worth holding.

But you carved your own absence too deep,

and now you’ve become nothing but a shadow

slipping behind me as I soar.

I am not waiting.

I am not turning back.

If you ever want to stand beside me again,

you will need to crawl with change,

bleed with effort,

and prove with fire that you deserve a place.

Until then..

goodbye is not bitter.

It is freedom.

And I wear it like a crown

forged from every broken promise

you thought I wouldn’t survive.