MEDJ

stepping away for now

You're like the moon never meant to be touched.

I pause when my effort goes unseen,
when my reaching hands meet empty air.

I start to wonder if doing my best
only teaches my heart to overgive.

I question the trying,
the staying,

the hoping for echoes
in rooms that never answer back.

What do you call it
when you pour yourself into someone

who never refills your cup?

I ask myself if love is meant to feel
like waiting at a door that never opens,

like speaking in a language
no one wants to learn

So I turn the question inward:
Should I finally think of myself?

Maybe choosing me is not betrayal.
Maybe it is the first honest thing

I have done in a long time.
I will stop begging the silence to speak.

I will stop shrinking my needs
to fit inside your comfort.

If there is no reciprocation,
I will take my heart back---
not in anger,
but in quiet dignity.