I Wish You Stayed

By Vaishavi Ashokkumar Oza

You said you wanted to distance yourself from me because I like you,

But distance is a cruel illusion, won't change what I feel —

It will only leave me with a deeper ache.

I miss the boy who once spoke to me like

 I was a secret worth sharing

The boy who made ordinary days feel like fugitive wonders,

I still remember that first day in the group chat — You, with your carefree charm, spamming my DMs like we'd known each other forever:

And me, sitting there, smiling at my screen, thinking..

This is the soul I've been waiting for.

How could I not fall for you?

You didn't just speak — you felt, you matched me,

Like puzzle pieces lost in different lifetimes, 

finally finding their fit.

You are so sweet - so achingly sweet -

That I would bleed poems just to keep your essence alive.

And maybe you don't know this, but your name hides 

In the spaces between my verses,

Like a quiet confession I can't bear to erase.

My soul feels safe with you, that even in your distance.

I know you would never truly hurt me

But God, how the absence of you already does.

And if wishes were enough to rewrite fate, 

I'd weave us into the fabric of forever, 

Where I'd make you stay, 

Where you never walk away;

And I never watch you leave.

By Vaishavi Ashokkumar Oza