NEPHART.COM

Camera followed me wherever I go

not a person
not a face
just a lens
that never blinked

One day
a classmate met me in a café
we talked
a lovely chat
we laughed
like the world wasn’t watching

Next day
our picture printed
on a newspaper

Is she his new love interest?

She called me
we laughed again
this time at the world

Her fiancé knew
cameras don’t see
they create

We forgot it

Next day
another headline

She ditched him for someone new

I was single
still am

It was all rubbish
I knew

but I didn’t explain
didn’t clarify
not even online

The world kept burning
I didn’t add coal

They found pleasure
I lived in their minds
rent free

I stopped signing films
most stories
same
repeated
monotonous

I thought of my own

but my house
was already sinking

they didn’t like my way
my vision

I didn’t nudge
I didn’t budge

Nothing touched me

I had my luxury
a few hits behind me
that was enough

Five years passed
quietly

I spent life
on things I liked

Women came
and went
no one stayed

I was like a book

unread
untouched

not lost

just misplaced
on a shelf
no one remembers owning