Love was never a heartbeat. It was the echo left behind after the heart forgot why it was still beating. It arrived wearing another person's face, its hands stitched together from promises that had already begun to rot. I welcomed it. Not because it was kind, but because loneliness knows how to mistake a wolf for warmth. Every smile it offered cast a longer shadow. Every whispered "forever" fed another ghost sleeping beneath my ribs. The thought of love is a clever liar. It builds cathedrals from broken mirrors, then asks us to kneel before our own reflections, calling the illusion destiny. How eagerly we obey. We water flowers that grow from graves, write poems to people who never truly existed, and embrace memories still unborn. Love watches. Silent. Patient. Like a spider waiting in the center of a web woven from hope. It never forces us inside. It simply lets us believe the silver threads are rays of morning light. By the time we understand, the sky has forgotten our ...
You wrapped her in softness
like dusk wraps the sky,
quiet, warm, convincing.
Every word you spoke
fell gently, like petals
that never hinted
at the thorns beneath.
The romance you gave
flowed like silk velvet,
smooth across her skin,
each gesture measured,
each touch deliberate,
a masterpiece of illusion
painted in tenderness.
You knew exactly where to place your hands,
where to pause your voice,
where to let silence bloom
just enough
for her to fill it with hope.
And she did.
She drank from your kindness
as if it were true,
as if your gaze held something sacred,
as if every moment you offered
was built from something real,
not crafted, not calculated,
not rehearsed in the quiet corners
of your intent.
The romance you gave
was deep enough to drown in,
sweet enough to trust,
a careful weaving of warmth and wonder
that made her forget
How to question.
You made it feel like love.
As if your presence meant forever.
As if your promises had roots.
As if your hands
were not just passing through.
But beneath it all,
There was a stillness in you,
not peace,
but strategy.
She did not see the board.
She did not hear the quiet movement
of pieces shifting
behind your eyes.
To her,
you were not a player.
You were home.
And so she gave,
openly,
fearlessly,
placing her heart
where you could reach it
without resistance.
But to you,
she was in a position,
a step forward,
a move well made.
In a game she never agreed to play.
You held her like something precious
only long enough
to keep her still.
And when the moment came,
You moved,
not away from her,
but through her,
as if she had always been
meant to be sacrificed.
The romance you gave
did not shatter all at once.
It unraveled slowly,
thread by thread,
until the velvet turned to emptiness
in her hands.
And still she wondered,
Which part was real?
The warmth?
The laughter?
The way you said her name
Like it mattered?
Or was it all
just another move
on a board she never saw?
Because love,
real love,
does not calculate.
It does not disguise intention
as affection,
or disguise control
as care.
But you,
You mastered the illusion.
And she,
She believed it.
Until she finally saw
what she had always been:
not the queen,
not the partner,
not the love you claimed,
But the pawn
you moved
with gentle hands.
© 2026 Gloria Penelope
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