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Virginia Curtis's avatar

This one brings up some emotion for me. Not exactly regret, but a "what if" sort of feeling. I remember it, but I wonder if they remember it the same way. Thank you for this. It's so good! Love, Virg

imarkanx || istvan markan 🍁's avatar

It’s always the sliver of longing and regret. The sweet memory that soothes the bitter reality.

Thank you.

Adrião Pereira da Cunha's avatar

This poem feels like someone remembering a love that never fully left their skin.

There’s a quiet ache in those moments of passing each other like strangers.

The way the body still reacts, even when the mind tries to stay firm, feels painfully real.

Those flashes of the past — the shoulder, the mouth, the spinning room — hit with a soft punch.

What struck me most is how honest it is about wanting someone you know you shouldn’t go back to.

The repeated “I would, I could” sounds like something whispered into the dark.

There’s a sadness in how two people can go from fire to distance so quickly.

But the poem never hides that the pull is still there, buried but alive.

By the end, you feel how memory can cling long after the person is gone.

That final handprint image stays with you — like something the heart never fully washed off.

imarkanx || istvan markan 🍁's avatar

I do appreciate this kind feedback on this piece. It’s a fork off an earlier post that was inspired by my tarot associated work. I had to rewrite to make into lyrics.

https://imarkanx.substack.com/p/tarot-the-hanged-man

WiseWomanWickedTongue's avatar

Beautiful

Antonio Castellaneta's avatar

There is a moment

where it’s no longer about what happened.

Not the memory,

but what stays

without asking to return.

That’s where it lingers.