When Love Turned To Distance Poem by Elizabeth Jacqueline Mpanga

Never did I imagine you,
you, of all people, would wound my heart and break my spirit.
We burned with a love so fierce;
somewhere along the way you learned to hate me hotter still.

Night after night I prayed, asking God what I had done
to earn the shape of your coldness.
You say you don't hate me, then how could you hurt me so?
If not hate, what dark thing made you turn away?

I thought surrender would teach you my truth,
that giving you everything would show you love in full.
I prayed you'd remember me, the girl who made you laugh,
the one who cried beside you in your despair.

How does such devotion flip into such bitter disregard?
I came back to you, pleading for a memory,
a glance, a touch, the promise you once spoke:
to love me, to respect me, whatever came.

I knelt in plain sight and begged forgiveness for sins I could not name.
You would not meet my eyes. You offered no hand.
You turned and walked away, slow and certain,
and with each step your silhouette swallowed the light,
taking my heart into the distance.