Have you ever had invisible walls close in around you,
squeezing tighter and more forceful as the minutes slid by?
Have you ever made a mistake
that seared through the veins of those it infected?
Have you ever felt like you were walking on the ocean floor;
flooded by your own tears, and wishing the breath
you took before you went under was bigger, more deliberate,
had you known what was to come?

What if you lost your
best friend?
Not the one you occasionally hang out with,
or the one who talks too much,
but the one who was
always there.

The only one
whose humor genuinely made you laugh,
whose embrace made any and all pain vanish,
whose words kept you grounded in reality,
who mattered.
That friend.

What happens when they have nothing left to say?
When they hit you where it hurts and they don’t care —
because you’ve hurt them.
When sorry isn’t good enough,
when taillights and spinning tires leave you
in the dust without a tap on the brake.

If sorry isn’t good enough,
I’ll prove it to you.
I pray that one day,
even if it’s years from now,
the better versions of ourselves
will write a new chapter.