A smile and a pause
Do not a fool make
When you take a room with
Nothing but noise

Silence is not absence
Patience is not confusion
You mistook my watching
My noticing
For adoration

A game won is not necessarily a victory
But you played to be seen
And I saw
The tells, the cheats, the lies
But, time is the game
And loss is not always losing
Because I saw
And I waited
And I won

This was written for the Poetry profile's Versification 2026 Day 6 prompt - "You thought me a fool, that I didn't know how to play the game. But little did you know..."

Let me know what you think!