Time was,

My heart mistook love for a destructive force, 

Each touch felt like a tremor,

Every silence, a quiet before the storm. 

But with you, 

Love arrives like the first light, 

Quiet and unhurried on a window sill, 

Teaching my breath it doesn’t need to run. 

Time was, 

I believed connection was a fire, 

Blinding and consuming, 

Impossible to hold, unable to be contained.

But with you, 

I learned to flow like a new river, 

Carving the edges of the bank slowly and softly, 

I rippled my way slowly into your heart. 

Time was, 

I believed every story had someone that fell, 

Into unmet needs, into unbearable ache, 

Into someone else’s shadow. 

But with you, 

I learned our bodies can lean without tipping,

Our souls can rest without begging, 

Where closeness became a place to stand and not disappear. 

Time was, 

I measured my words, 

So my fragile world wouldn’t break, 

Where truth and downfall went hand in hand. 

But with you, 

My truth lands in your palms like a trembling bird, 

And instead of fear, you offer warmth, 

Teaching me honesty is a door we walk through together. 

Time was, 

Saying “I need a moment” was the first crack in the foundation, 

Every want a bar of the cage that ensnared me,

Until it eventually suffocated and snuffed me.

But with you, 

Space becomes its own kind of closeness, 

A breath taken on different shores, 

But I know the tide will bring us back. 

Time was, 

Expressing desire was dizzying and dangerous, 

Like standing on a ledge, 

Off of which I was eventually pushed into oblivion. 

But with you, 

You hold my hands in yours and the world steadies,

Wanting you doesn’t ask me to risk myself, 

Instead it invites me to return to myself. 

And between breaking and becoming, 

Between who I was and who I now allowed myself to be, 

I felt the ground beneath me shift, 

And that’s when I realised…

That I had come home.