Francesca Burkett
I desperately wish we’d never met.
I close my eyes and imagine
that timeline in another universe
where our paths never cross.
A timeline where the lines
of our lives, stretching through time
never touched—never intertwined.
I try to imagine…but it’s darkness.
The macrame of our memories
cannot be forgotten.
The very place I stand today reflects
the time we spent together.
It’s not that we weren’t right for each other…
we were.
It wasn’t even the right person
at the wrong time.
It was the right time,
for both of us.
You just weren’t meant to be
the right person forever.
Just right for a moment.
And for that moment,
how closely those lines crossed.
Every moment, twisting closer,
shaping the other,
growing older.
Nothing seemed to change between us
as the moments slipped by.
But looking back—everything changed.
It wasn’t one sudden thing.
Just slowly, every day,
those strings uncrossed.
Slowly twisting apart.
At first, too slow to notice.
Then, too fast to stop.
Separation was imminent,
necessary.
But it all just seems so dark.
I cannot wish the strings of fate
would have left us never meeting,
because then I’d have to wish away us.
The person I am now.
The person you are now.
And that, I cannot wish.