I do not wish to miss you, 

Yet I miss you with every breath I take, 

I do not yearn to reach for you, 

Yet your name rests upon my lips, a whispered ache. 

The distance between us is an ocean vast, 

Its waves break heavy against the shores of my soul, 

But when I envision the world we might craft, 

I would brave any tempest to make us whole. 

I know not how to make you feel my love, 

Nor how to soothe your spirit in its quiet despair, 

I know not how to make you love me as I do you, 

For every moment without you feels like an eternity to bear. 

I know you crave time; I know you need space, 

Moments to breathe, to find your rhythm, your pace. 

But do not drown yourself in solitude or push me away, 

For you wound your own heart when you keep mine at bay. 

It need not be this way; it need not end in despair, 

Let me mend you; let me shelter you from the storm’s glare. 

Together, we can rise; I believe in your light— 

No distance too wide, no darkness too deep, where love cannot ignite. 

For if it is not you, then it is no one— 

In this vast, bewildering cosmos, you are my one true star, 

Through every doubt, through every endless night, 

I would choose the agony of longing over a life where we are apart. 

This was written by our contributing writer, Atia Sanjida.