I Thought Of You Today Poem by cassidy Lovato

I thought of you today.
Not in longing.
Not in regret.
Simply in passing,
the way old songs
find their way back
without invitation.

It wasn't anything remarkable.
A laugh that sounded familiar.
A story shared between friends.
The kind of moment
that once belonged to us.

Funny how memory works.
It doesn't ask permission.
It simply arrives,
sets an old photograph on the table,
and waits.

I wondered how you were.
Not because I needed to know,
but because there was a time
when your life unfolded beside mine,
and caring became second nature.

I asked about you.
The first time
in longer than I care to measure.

They said you were doing well.
Your smile still found cameras.
Your life still found adventures.
For reasons I can't explain,
that made me smile.

I have always wanted happiness
to find you,
even if it no longer arrived
through me.

Perhaps I still make excuses.
Perhaps I always will.
Maybe distance was easier.
Maybe grief was louder than friendship.
Maybe the silence
was never about me at all.
Or maybe

those are simply the stories
I tell myself
because they hurt less
than believing
I was someone
you could quietly leave behind.

I'll never know.
And somehow,
I've made peace with that.

We are no longer
the people we once were.

I don't know
how you take your coffee now.
What books line your shelves.
Who makes you laugh
until your stomach hurts.
What keeps you awake at night.
Or what dreams
have replaced the ones
you once whispered to me.

Time has introduced us
to strangers
wearing familiar names.

Still,
I miss you.

Not every day.
Not in the way
I once did.

But in quiet moments.
In passing thoughts.
In memories
that never asked to fade.

If tomorrow
you reached out
with nothing more
than a broken twig,
I would still recognize
the olive branch.

Not because I've been waiting.
I haven't.

But because love,
in all its forms,
rarely disappears.
It simply learns
to expect less.

Whether this is the last time
I ask about you,
or merely another chapter
I cannot yet see,
I hope life is gentle with you.

I hope you are loved
the way friends should be.

And if you ever think of me,
I hope it makes you smile,
the way thinking of you
did today.