regret

I should have held

onto you a bit longer

I should have told

you what I felt

I should have laid

my heart on the table

I should have spoken

the words on my tongue

But I was too afraid

of your rejection

I was too afraid that

you would laugh at me

I was too afraid you

wouldn’t love me back

I was too afraid to release

those words on my tongue

And now I am full of regret

that I let you slip away

and now I wonder about

what could have been

and now I sit here pondering

on how to move on

and now I write love poems

instead of living them

 - Written in response to Writers' Digest Poetic Aside April 2017 PAD Challenge Day 26 in which one is tasked to write a poem about regret.