dear future partner
dear future partner,
don’t carry worries you were never meant to hold
about the way I survived the days I couldn’t explain
about the noise I once called life
or the chaos I mistook for home
I have sat with all of it already
the unfairness, the confusion, the quiet aches
I did not leave them untouched
I named them, one by one
until they stopped sounding like thunder
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I forgave what I could not understand
and I let go of what refused to make sense
not all at once
but in the slow language of time
I healed in ways you will not have to witness
in ways that no longer ask for saving
or stitching back together
so when you arrive
do not come as a rescuer
I am not waiting to be fixed
come as someone who stays
not because I am broken
but because I have already learned how to be whole
on my own
and still choose you anyway
