Just Ignored

Separate lives—

he sleeps during the day,

a vampire;

I sleep during the night.

Not much more than a hello

passes between us.

Anything more

meets only silence.

He won’t acknowledge me—

not in the same room,

not when I text

while he’s away.

My words fly into the ether,

evaporating

before they ever reach

their destination.

The wait for any reaction—

even a meaningless

thumbs-up emoji—

is a hunger.

I starve,

feeling less than human.

Head down,

I walk into the room

as he watches YouTube

on his phone,

fixated on

the excited chatter.

Hours later,

he finally reads

the message I sent.

I should be grateful—

I’m not invisible,

just ignored.

The vampire drains my hope

and never notices.