Beyond My Reach I didn’t love a flawless face, The practiced charm, the silent grace, I didn’t fall for how you spoke, Or how you smiled, to guard the stroke, It wasn’t masks or clever lines, It was the tremble, between the signs. I saw the parts you never name, The boy, beneath the grown man’s frame, I saw the ache you try to hide, The shadow sitting at your side, The doubt, the guilt, the heavy shame, The war inside you, never tame. I saw the doors you never close, The ghosts you feed, the fear that grows. The way you run, but never go, A guard the fractures, you won’t let show, You say you’re in, you want what’s true , But truth still, has to sneak past you. I never asked for you to heal, Or be some man you couldn’t feel, I only hoped, you’d let me near, Not as a fix, but more sincere, Not as a cure or saving light, Just a place to breathe at night. You think I loved a version drawn, A cleaner script, a brighter dawn, But love like mine, it’s never blind, I saw you, even left behind, I saw you far beyond your speech, And loved you far beyond my reach. Cathrine Hottran 2025

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