Are You Happy?

Two former lovers briefly meet

Are You Happy?

I ran into you accidentally
and my heart fluttered—
not like a bird,
but as if it would stop.
A stutter in the chest,
a hush in the blood.

You said my name
as if it still belonged to you.
I smiled,
but it felt like borrowing someone else's face.

I asked, “Are you happy?”
and the air between us
tightened like a thread
I wasn’t ready to cut.

You said yes.
But your voice cracked.
Your eyes looked past me
like they owed me something.

But you didn’t ask if I were happy.
Your mouth wanted to,
but the sentence dissolved before it reached your lips.

So much to say,
but neither of us had the courage to speak,
and our truths stayed buried.

Only the silence,
and the sound of my heart
remembering how to break.

And maybe that’s enough—
not closure,
but a quiet kind of truth.