I Would Have Loved You In Silence

Dear Centauri,

If I had met you in a century
where we weren’t allowed to speak—

I would’ve learned how to write you into wind.

I would’ve carved poems into tree trunks
and trusted that somehow,
the rings would carry your name.

If we were born in parallel lives,
or too far apart—

I would’ve stayed soft anyway,
just in case the ache reached you.

I don’t need love to be loud.

I just need it to be true.

And you are.

You always were.

—Castor