There are moments
when words fail.

Silence steps in—
but even silence
cannot carry everything
the heart wants to say.

I ask myself
a simple question.

Have I truly lived?

Or have I only
moved through the days
without noticing
how quickly they pass?

Time moves strangely.

Sometimes slow—
like a long winter afternoon.

Yet when you look back
it has travelled
an impossible distance.

Whole years
gone
in the blink of memory.

Moments
slipping quietly
through open hands.

Time is only a breath.

Not something
we can store.
Not something
we can buy back.

Each second
arrives
as a gift.

And leaves
as a memory.

Love has always
lived inside me.

But too often
I kept it quiet.

Held back.

Unspoken.

Yet love
is never meant
to stay hidden.

It belongs
to family,
to friends,
to the people
who walk beside us.

And sometimes
late at night
a thought returns—

soft
but heavy.

If only
I had held those moments longer.

If only
I had said the words sooner.

How different
the story
might have been.

By Paul Baldry (LongJohn)

This reflective poem contemplates time, memory, and the quiet weight of unspoken love. It asks whether we truly live or simply pass through our days, reminding us that moments fade quickly and love should never remain unsaid.

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