HER MESSAGE CAME WITH LIGHTNING

You ask why he flinches at your touch?
Why beauty like yours stirs nothing in his eyes?
The answer lies in Nubia's burning sands
Where a woman with your smile once made him whole.

She appeared like daybreak after endless night,
Her words sweet as dates from ancient palms.
She promised him kingdoms, whispered eternities,
Swore their bloodlines would mingle into gold.

He poured himself into her waiting hands.
Time, dreams, inheritance, soul.
She wore his future on her finger,
Her laughter the music he breathed.

Their wedding invitations, addressed and stamped,
Waited like patient soldiers by the door.
Ten days before vows would bind them true,
The sky fractured with digital thunder.

Her message broke across his screen:
"I've changed. My heart has found another shore."
Three lines of text and his world collapsed.

Ninety-two days behind white walls,
Medication dripping slow as winter rain.
They rebuilt him from fragments, released him back
Into a world now sharp with hidden blades.

He walks now like a man who's seen
The lightning's face and lived to tell.
His smile comes and goes like passing clouds,
His trust a broken compass seeking north.

This is why he trembles when you reach for him.
This is why your beauty feels like warning signs.
Be gentle with his weather-beaten heart.
It's still learning how to beat without breaking.