STILL, I WISH YOU WELL

 Today, the world celebrates you.

Candles will flicker, glasses will rise,

messages will pour in loud and bright —
but mine will stay here,
quiet ink on a quiet page.

Once, I had plans for this day.
I had imagined laughter spilling into midnight,
my hands wrapped around yours,
a whispered wish against your chest
before the candles burned out.

I had imagined being there.
Instead, I am here —
learning how to love from a distance,
learning how to hold memories
without letting them hold me hostage.

For a few months,
you were my favorite place to rest.
Your chest felt like home.
Your voice at 2 a.m. felt like safety.
The way we folded into each other
made the world quieter, softer, kinder.
What we had was not imaginary.
It was not small.
It was not nothing.
It was real enough to leave an echo.
And echoes are strange —
they linger long after the sound has stopped.

They visit in ordinary moments:
a song, a late night,
a silence that feels too familiar.
But here is what I have learned:
Love does not disappear overnight.
It thins out.
It softens.
It becomes less of a wound
and more of a memory.
Every day it hurts a little less.
One day passes, then another…
until one morning you wake up
and realize you made it through an entire day
without thinking of him at all.
I am not fully there yet —
but I am on my way.

Today is your birthday.
And I will not pretend it is just another day.
You mattered.
You still matter.
But not in the way you once did.
I no longer wait for your name to light up my screen.
I no longer measure my worth by your attention.
I no longer confuse longing with destiny.
What we shared taught me something sacred:
that I can love deeply,
that I can open fully,
that my heart is capable of warmth
without fear.
And that is something I keep.

So wherever you are today —
may your steps be steady.
May your ambitions meet opportunity.
May laughter find you easily.
May the year ahead be kind.
This is not a plea.
Not a door left half-open.
Not a hope disguised as poetry.
It is simply a quiet acknowledgment
of a chapter that existed
and a woman who survived it.

Happy birthday Vasq.
From a heart
that once loved you fiercely.