Confession

I didn’t know what love was,

or what it was supposed to feel like,

I didn’t feel it in my goodnight kisses,

and I didn’t feel it in my bedtime lullabies.

My parents' hearts were set to fight,

their focus sharp on all their flaws,

and before I heard the ‘I love you’,

I learned the sound of slammed doors.

I started chasing love when I was young,

desperate for a chance to reel it in,

I thought I found it in the restless nights,

but the morning reality pulled me back again.

The nights grew long and loud,

as I chased something I couldn’t hold,

I thought I could find it with people I didn’t know,

But the warmth I sought just turned cold.

I’d become a thousand faces to fit their mould,

bending truths to catch their eyes, to earn their love within,

a game I’d played a million times before,

yet a game I could never win.

Maybe love was just a show,

a phrase people said but never knew,

was it reassurance so they wouldn’t leave?

maybe it was fake, something untrue?

I stopped chasing, tired of running after affection,

fed up with endless pain and words left unspoken,

I let go of love’s false promise,

no more clawing at a broken reflection.

Then you found me, lost in the restless lights,

where in the shadows, I caught your glance,

you didn’t rush, you didn’t turn away,

you simply took my hand, and asked me to dance.

With every step, and every quiet chance,

you saw the cracks I tried to hide,

and you held my heart without a word,

and you loved the pieces deep inside.

I found it calm in your embrace,

a place where tenderness could grow, fading fear,

I learned to trust this simple dance,

and in you, love’s meaning became clear.

Now I know what love is,

and what it’s meant to feel like,

I feel it in your lingering goodnight kisses,

and in the warmth of our quiet lullabies.

Our hearts are set on home,

I love our highs and lows that come our way,

and before I hear you say, ‘I love you’,

I already know it in the way that you stay.