When I was with you,
I only had moments.
Where it was warm,
Where it was complete,
Where I felt it skip beats,
But now that we're over,
I feel it,
All the time.

It's like I don't have lungs,
I don't have ribs,
I don't have muscle,
I don't have skin,
It's just there,
Sitting,
Alone.

Exposed,
With fear,
Blood beats out,
In tears,
And pushes me,
To continue,
On.

You put a weight on my chest,
Knowing it would be too heavy for me to lift.
Every time we were together,
You took it off,
Giving me instant relief.

When it was time for me to leave,
You put it back,
Making me not just want,
But need you to feel at ease.

So I kept going back,
Even though I knew I shouldn't,
Because I couldn't stand the discomfort of being away from you.

Until one day,
You broke me,
In a way that couldn't be forgiven.
So I left,
For good.
And still,
I couldn't escape the weight.

I tried and tried to get it off,
But no matter how close I thought I was,
It always crashed back onto me,
Restarting the same cycle of pain,
Erasing all the progress I thought I made,
Pushing the feeling of normalcy I had so often taken for granted,
Further and further out of reach.

There were so many days that I wanted to give up and go back,
Because I knew if I begged enough,
You'd take it off,
And take me back.

But I didn't,
Because I couldn't face you.
I couldn't be the weak thing you wanted me to be.
I had respect for myself,
And I knew that the tough girl inside,
Was still there.
I just had to endure this to get her back.

So even though it was the last thing I wanted to do,
I kept pushing,
Each and every day,
Exhausting myself,
Getting closer and closer,
Becoming stronger and stronger,
Until my persistence finally paid off,
And I removed the weight all on my own.

Now,
For the first time in weeks,
I am free.
I can enjoy each step, breath, and heartbeat,
Uninhibited and uninterrupted,
Because I fought for them,
I fought for me,
And I won.

The weight will come back,
If you don't put it there,
Someone else will.
That's life.
But I know I can take it off,
Without anyone else's help,
Because unlike the weight,
My strength is only here to stay,
And grow.

So thank you,
For making me better than I've ever been,
For forcing me to fight for myself,
For helping me realize,
That the only person I'll ever need,
Isn't you or anyone else,
It's me.

All of my friends are your friends,
"It's been months",
They say.

But it's not like you hurt me once,
Or twice,
You hurt me everyday.

So tell me,
How am I supposed to heal,
When I can never get away?

I spent my whole life on a ledge,
Safe.
Watching people of all different shapes, sizes, colors, and places,
Fall for this thing called "love".
No matter how many times I watched,
It didn't make any kind of sense to me.

It's simple logic,
Statistics,
Physics,
And math.
That if you fall,
Gravity will pull you down,
And you will get hurt.

I was content on that ledge,
With no desire whatsoever,
To follow the masses in the plunge,
Happy,
Until I met you.

You found me there.
Knowing that I was an innocent,
A skeptic,
A challenge,
And you changed my world.

At first we just talked,
Argued,
Laughed,
And talked.
And no matter how hard I tried to get rid of you,
You stayed.

You listened to my hopes, dreams, thoughts, and fears,
You told me yours.
And then one day,
Without any kind of warning,
You jumped,
Right in front of me.

Scared out of my mind,
I ran to the edge and looked down,
But you were fine,
Floating,
Soaring,
Day after day, after day, after day.
And no matter how hard I tried to get you to come back,
You wouldn't.

You teased me,
You coaxed me,
And eventually,
You wore me down.
Because the longer I stayed up there,
The further I was from the only person I wanted to be with,
You.

So I forgot everything I knew,
And I jumped.
At first,
We fell together.
And it was exhilarating,
Powerful,
Magical,
The biggest rush I have ever felt.

But then,
I looked next to me,
And you weren't there anymore.
You stopped.
Without telling me,
Or even teaching me how.

And the rest?
Was pain.
Me watching the ground I was about to crash into move closer,
And closer.
Me looking up,
Searching for you,
Screaming,
Begging for your help,
Reassuring myself that you would save me.
Because after all,
You're the one who told me to jump in the first place.
But I was wrong.

You watched me fall in panic for weeks,
Until I finally smacked into the ground,
And shattered,
Into a million, uneven pieces.
Without any attempt whatsoever to catch me,
Or break my fall.

So here I lay,
Alone and scattered,
In fragments so jagged,
They hurt to touch,
Riddled with the seemingly impossible task of getting myself together,
And back up to where it all began,
The ledge.

Everyday since we ended things,
I wake up with this ****** feeling.
Like a piece of me is missing.

I feel my heart throb,
Not in the good way like it used to,
But in a bad way.
Like someone grabbed it and unapologetically forced a knife through it,
From one side to the other.

So far the pain has never gone away.
It's like a dark cloud that follows me around.
Sometimes it fades,
But I always feel it,
I don't even have to look up to know it's there.

This kind of pain is new to me.
You were my first relationship.
You were my first date, my first kiss, and almost my first ****.
I say **** because towards the end that's all I was to you,
An emotionless ****.

That's what hurts the most.
I opened up to you.
You got to see me in a way no one has.
I shared my body, my thoughts, and my emotions with you.
But you didn't value them.
You didn't value me.

And I felt it.
I felt the switch.
So I asked you about it,
I asked if things had changed,
And you lied to me.
You blamed me,
And said, "That's just your own insecurity speaking".
Because I was naive,
I believed you.

How could things have changed so quickly?
You fought for me.
Hard.
Even when I was a ***** to you,
Even when all we did was argue,
Even when I told you we didn't have a future,
You weren't phased.

Because you were fighting for us,
I started fighting too.
Slowly at first,
But then for real.
And when I was finally all in,
I was alone,
Fighting for something you had given up on without even telling me.

You showed me love.
You showed me that it exists,
But you also showed me heartbreak.
Now I don't know how to feel about you.
The knight in the beginning doesn't match the ******* at the end.
And I'm left to wonder whether any of it was real,
Or whether it was all fake.

But I know the answer,
Because I felt it.
I felt it in the way you held me,
The way you kissed me,
And the words you said.
How your touch went from soft and tender,
To hungry and aggressive.
How our conversations changed from deep and patient,
To superficial and abrupt.

I can never hate you because when it was real,
It was beautiful.
A beauty I never knew to be true.
The closest thing to perfection I have ever seen or felt.
So perfect that even just the memories give me butterflies.
Perfection like that should never be tarnished.
Ever.
No matter what.

When you gave me your love,
I wasn't entirely ready to accept it.
I needed more time.
When I finally was,
It was too late.
It was gone.

While that hurts,
What hurts even more is that I kept chasing it,
Making excuses for every wrong thing you did to me,
Cutting myself deeper and deeper,
Spilling myself out to you more and more,
Believing it would come back or that it never left,
Because every time I asked you whether things had changed,
You told me they hadn't.

I was only ever honest with you.
Trust me that wasn't easy,
But I did it because I never wanted you to get hurt.
I guess I should be happy,
Because you aren't.
I guess part of me is.
But then again, I'm not.
I didn't protect myself the way I protected you.

Now here I am,
Broken,
Writing the first poem of my life,
Because three months ago,
You told me that writing poetry helped you work through your emotions.

I hate that even after all the pain,
I still value your opinion enough to try it.
I hate even more,
That you were right.