Just My Turn

I loved you with a devotion that ran deep,  
Like rivers carving canyons through stone,  
But you never looked at me with the same eyes,  
Never smiled with the warmth that you reserved for him.  
And every time you gazed at him, something inside me cracked,  
A fragile thing splintering under the weight of a truth  
I wasn’t ready to face.

I remember how I would trace the contours of your face  
With my eyes, memorizing every curve, every line,  
Hoping that one day, you’d turn those same eyes to me,  
And see in me what I saw in you—a love pure and unwavering.  
But those moments never came, did they?  
Instead, you saved your brightest smiles,  
Your softest laughter, for someone else.

And I tried, oh how I tried,  
To convince myself that it didn’t matter,  
That as long as I had a piece of you,  
Even if it was just a sliver, it would be enough.  
But each day, the doubts grew louder,  
Like a storm brewing on the horizon,  
Threatening to tear apart the fragile hope I clung to.

Was I ever truly yours, or was I just a chapter  
In a story you were writing with someone else in mind?  
A brief moment in time where our paths crossed,  
But never truly merged.  
I watched as you gave your heart away,  
Piece by piece, to someone who wasn’t me,  
And in the silence of those unspoken words,  
I felt myself fading, becoming a ghost in your life.

I tried to hold on, to be the one who could make you smile,  
Who could make your eyes light up the way they did for him,  
But no matter how hard I tried,  
I was always just a shadow,  
Standing in the background,  
Watching as you shined for someone else.

And now, as I look back,  
I wonder if I was ever anything more than just a placeholder,  
A warm body to fill the empty spaces,  
While you waited for the one who truly held your heart.  
Was it ever love, or was it just my turn,  
A fleeting moment of borrowed time,  
In a story that was never meant to be mine?  
And as I ask myself these questions,  
I feel the weight of the truth pressing down on me,  
Crushing the last remnants of hope,  
Until all that’s left is the bitter realization  
That you were never really mine,  
And I was never really yours.