Invisible by Jina Wallwork

I know her sadness because I feel it too. She cries when she believes that she’s alone. I watch her longing for someone else and her pain cuts into my bones. I don’t need her words to tell me that I’m not enough. I can see it in her face and within her behavior. Physically she is by my side, but her heart is buried beyond my reach. She has become the architect of her own unhappiness. She has skillfully shaped her life from the ruins of her shattered dreams. As I watch her tears fall, I know that I’m a piece of her broken world. I’m a piece of artifice as she pretends to heal. I’m the second choice when real love has rejected her. I stand in the doorway while she gazes beyond me. I’m invisible to her eyes. She only sees the person I can never become. She will never know of my depths and personality. It is a love that keeps me present while my confidence is forever poisoned by her emotions. She will only see the worst of me because I’m not what she desires. It is painful to view myself with her eyes, and if I stay, I will struggle to see myself in any other way. She doesn’t realize that I’m standing in the doorway contemplating my own freedom.