Holding Onto Love Too Late

I held onto love

When the world had already moved on

When your heart had drifted

And my hands were empty.

I held onto the memories

Of laughter and quiet moments

Thinking they could bring you back

Thinking they could fill the space

Where your presence once lived.

I waited for words

That never came

For promises

That were never meant to stay

For a touch

That no longer reached me.

I remembered the mornings

When your eyes met mine

And I believed

That time would never end

That love would always stay.

I held onto hope

Like a fragile candle

Burning softly in the wind

Even though the flame wavered

Even though shadows grew around it.

I whispered your name

In rooms where you were absent

In streets where you no longer walked

In dreams that felt too heavy

With longing I could not release.

I held onto love

Because letting go felt impossible

Because my heart still imagined

That we could return to what once was

Even when I knew

It had already gone.

I held onto the past

And in doing so

I forgot to live in the present

To open my hands

To the light that waited

To the quiet moments

I could still feel

Even without you.

But love is not always ours to keep

It does not belong to fear

It does not linger because we want it

It moves with time

With hearts ready

And with hands willing to release.

Now I let go

Not because I do not love

But because love cannot survive in grasping alone

It breathes, it flows, it transforms

And sometimes

We must release it

To honor what it once was

To honor what we still can be.

I still feel the echoes

The warmth, the softness, the light

But I do not hold them too tightly

I let them drift

And in letting go

I find space

For new love, new hope,

And a heart

That can still grow

Even when the past is gone.