Maybe he did not say it the way you needed.

Maybe the words came late.
Maybe they came differently.
Maybe they never came at all.

But some love lives in other places -
in the ride home, the thing repaired, the quiet check-in, the way he stayed near even when he didn't know how to speak.

You don't need to ask him to explain it now.

This collection is for the space between what he felt and what he could say.

For the love you learned to recognize anyway.