⸻

You always liked to think I’d stay

Some permanent mark you couldn’t wash away

Like I was built around your name

You read my silence like a sign

Like every breath of mine

Still circled back to you

You mistook distance for disguise

Thought if I didn’t criticize

I must still care

But not reacting isn’t war

Sometimes it’s just not wanting more

Of what was there

You call it tension when I’m calm

But peace doesn’t have to come with alarms

I don’t hate you

And I don’t need to erase you

You weren’t the scar you believed in

Just a chapter I was leaving

When it closed

Oh, I cried when it was breaking

But healing isn’t faking

It’s slow

And it might wreck you to hear me

But you’re not anywhere near me

Anymore

You said I froze when you walked in

Maybe I just didn’t spin

The way I used to

You search my face for something cracked

Like I’m performing to distract

From missing you

But not every quiet shake is fear

Not every memory means I’m still here

In that space

You weren’t nothing, that’s the truth

But not everything you lose

Is meant to stay

You needed to be hard to quit

I didn’t. I just outgrew it.

I don’t resent you

I just don’t represent you

In the life I’m building now

You’re not the “what if” or the “how”

You’re the past

Oh, I hate that it still shakes you

But I don’t need to break you

To go

And it might wreck you to face it

But I don’t have to fake it

I let go

You wanted to be unforgettable

Something elemental

In my veins

But love isn’t permanent ink

Sometimes it fades faster than you think

Without blame

You weren’t easy.

You weren’t light.

You weren’t small.

You just weren’t right.

I don’t miss you

I miss who I was with you

And that’s not the same as wanting

To go back to what was haunting

Us both

Oh, I hope you find your ending

Without needing me pretending

I’m stuck

And it might wreck you to know this

But the truth is

I’m already gone.

No anger.

No war.

No echo.

Just forward.

⸻