I loved you gently,
in all the ways you could not
love yourself.
I traced light into the places
you only called broken,
held your name carefully
when you spoke it like an apology.
But love cannot live
where someone keeps locking the door
from the inside.
And no matter how softly I reached for you,
you kept mistaking tenderness
for something you did not deserve.
So I stood there
heart open, hands empty
loving a man
who could not believe
he was worth being loved.
May 27
May 27, 2026 at 1:24 AM UTC
I loved you gently,
in all the ways you could not
love yourself.
I traced light into the places
you only called broken,
held your name carefully
when you spoke it like an apology.
But love cannot live
where someone keeps locking the door
from the inside.
And no matter how softly I reached for you,
you kept mistaking tenderness
for something you did not deserve.
So I stood there
heart open, hands empty
loving a man
who could not believe
he was worth being loved.
December 2025
Request permission to use this poem