Between the two of us
Closer.
My eyes stayed on you long enough
for your body to stop pretending
it hadn’t already answered.
Yours steadied mine.
Only breath remained between us —
and even that felt negotiable.
You didn’t move closer.
The space did.
We stood near enough
that wanting felt unnecessary,
the distance between us
already decided.
Your gaze held —
not urgent, not kind —
until resistance thinned
into permission.
The moment was settling,
not sealing —
just low,
along the back of the neck,
where stillness
gathers its weight.
Nothing required.
Nothing refused.
The air thinned there —
close,
attentive —
before easing upward,
loosening at the ear,
the wrist,
places that listen
as much as they answer.
Breath held —
then returned.
Not because it had to.
Other prose and poems.
Nothing truly leaves — it just changes how it stays.
If something moved in you — a silence that whispered — I’d love to hear it below, or in my DM’s.
All artwork courtesy of NDjin Gallery
The exquisite beauty of emotion that simply breathes -- it feels like the deepest knowing between two souls. Thank you for this, Mark.
Caught myself holding my breath as I read. Good sign.