Love was never a heartbeat. It was the echo left behind after the heart forgot why it was still beating. It arrived wearing another person's face, its hands stitched together from promises that had already begun to rot. I welcomed it. Not because it was kind, but because loneliness knows how to mistake a wolf for warmth. Every smile it offered cast a longer shadow. Every whispered "forever" fed another ghost sleeping beneath my ribs. The thought of love is a clever liar. It builds cathedrals from broken mirrors, then asks us to kneel before our own reflections, calling the illusion destiny. How eagerly we obey. We water flowers that grow from graves, write poems to people who never truly existed, and embrace memories still unborn. Love watches. Silent. Patient. Like a spider waiting in the center of a web woven from hope. It never forces us inside. It simply lets us believe the silver threads are rays of morning light. By the time we understand, the sky has forgotten our ...
When you were done with me,
you pushed me away without regret.
When I no longer served your needs,
I became useless in your eyes.
Life was sweet for you without me—
Laughter came easy,
days moved on as if I never existed.
Then the scariest snake appeared,
blocking your path,
before I even reached where I was going.
Suddenly, my name returned to your mouths.
You called me back,
hands shaking, voices desperate,
asking me to fight the danger for you.
Am I your emergency tool,
kept aside until fear arrives?
No. You are no longer worth my help.
Face your crisis without me.
I will walk on,
wounded but awake,
and I will survive—
stronger without you.
© 2026 Gloria Penelope
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