i saw a face today, not hers, but close enough, to wake the ache i’d buried neat and deep. my pulse betrayed the calm i’d built so tough, the body always knows what the mind can’t keep. i blinked it off, pretended nothing stirred, like how ghosts don’t visit in the shape of light. a laugh, a turn, the echo blurred, but it cut like memory’s blade in spite. so i smiled as strangers do in passing rain, let silence fold the tremor in my chest. love’s cruel trick to remind you again, that healing isn’t peace, it’s just learned rest. ~shreeraj