it’s time to accept
that you can’t possibly be
my soft place to land—

not if falling for you
always leaves me broken

it’s not that
there’s someone else
in the picture

it’s that
someone else
is your picture

and i’m the sun in the corner
begging not to set

—
i am sorry.

i love you.

three words
eight letters

i have no problem
saying both to you

you have no choice
but to say one to me
because you can’t say
the other

and though i knew
you’d never call it home,
i built this love meticulously
and lived in there defiantly
completely on my own

so as i feel
the house lose its roof
and the walls lose their blue

i can’t help but feel
homeless
in the house i built

the sad truth is that
many of the same people
who preach that love conquers all
actively try to conquer a love
they don’t understand

i’ll always matter to you
but i’ll never be your person

i’ll always just be a
significant
other
...

i know how terrifying it is
to press pause

to lay in bed
feeling the unrelenting rotation
of the world pass you by
as you try to sleep your way
through the pain

but let me tell you a secret,
my dear—

the more you try to
fast forward through the hard,
the more you’ll have to
rewind back to it in the end

so feel it.
pause it and exist in it.

yes—the world will keep turning,
but don’t let that scare you

someday so will you