I Almost Do Poem by Za7ra Sulaiman

I almost told you,
in that breathless moment between hello and goodbye,
that I still remember the weight of your hand in mine,
still feel the echo of your laugh in the hollow of my chest.

I almost told you
how I still turn my head when someone calls your name,
how the world is full of shadows shaped like you —
half memory, half mistake.

I almost told you
that when I saw you standing there,
a stranger cloaked in a familiar smile,
my heart beat the old rhythm it had once composed for you.

I almost told you
how every word I never said still lingers between us,
an unfinished song,
a whisper caught between teeth too proud to tremble.

But I stayed silent,
because you were no longer mine to miss aloud,
because some aches are too sacred to confess,
even to the one who caused them.

So I just smiled,
pretending not to know you,
pretending not to love you still.