Languishing

A Poem

Photo by Zohre Nemati on Unsplash

the day you said the words,
i thought my heart
might just
stop

but
i had been
expecting them
to come on the horizon

it was a tide, a force, a wave —
all crashing down
on me, me, me
in one swoop

and you were
on the other side,
just watching from afar
as i tried so hard not to drown

you expected me to falter
since my heart’s soft
but i surprised you
in the end

because
i swam back to shore
all on my own this time
without needing a lifesaver

your kindness was a weapon
i didn’t expect to cut
so sharp, so keen
like a blade

and no one
told me that the truth
could stab like a rose’s thorns
yet be a balm to all the past hurts