Pining with unrequited love

I did not fall for you loudly.

I fell the way dusk falls

slow, unnoticed,

until everything was changed.

You laugh, and my heart learns a new language.
You turn away, and I practice silence.
If my feelings seem light to you,
know they are only quiet, not small.

I carry you in pauses,
in unsent words,
in the gentle ache of wanting
without asking to be wanted back.

If someday you hear this love
not in my voice,
but in my patience
you will know
I loved you without needing to be chosen.