If I Could Meet You Just One More Time

I thought it was a dream.

Walking down the usual path on my way home at night,

the scenery I should have been so familiar with looked a little different.

The air was glowing softly,

as if time were slowly unraveling.

Suddenly, I stopped in my tracks.

Standing just ahead was a silhouette.

There was no way I could have mistaken them.

Because it was the person I had always wanted to see.

——If I could meet you just one more time.

If I were able to see you,

I must have thought over and over again about what I would say.

I tried to call your name,

but my voice wouldn't come out right.

Instead, that person smiles just a little.

“It's been a while”

It was a voice I missed.

I take one step closer.

They, too, take just one step closer in the same way.

The distance between us is so close that I could almost touch you,

yet for some reason, I cannot get any closer.

I reach out my hand.

You reach out your hand in the same way.

Our fingertips gently overlap.

I should have felt you,

and though there was a definite warmth there,

at the same time, there was a sense that you might vanish at any moment.

"Have you been well?"

That was the only mundane thing I could think to say.

But you just nodded quietly.

"Yes. I've been watching over you all along."

With those words,

what I had locked deep inside my heart begins to unravel.

The wind passes through gently.

The light begins to fade, little by little.

I realize that the end is near.

Hey.

I call out, without thinking.

I felt like I had to say it this time, for sure.

"Thank you"

I managed to put just that into words.

The other person looked a little surprised,

and then, they smiled gently.

In that moment, the sensation at my fingertips suddenly lightens.

As if the light were unraveling,

that figure slowly faded away.

I did not think to hold them back.

Because by now, I understood it clearly.

This was,

the answer to the night I wished,

if only I could meet you one more time.

Before I knew it, I was back on the usual night road.

Even so,

something warm remained deep within my chest.

If I could meet you just one more time.

The feelings I had when I thought that,

have already quietly unraveled.

It's not because I was able to meet you.

It's because I was able to properly tell you.

I participated in Mikan Katagiri's prompt 👇️✨️