Clearly, Love

I breathe you in—
not perfume, but presence.
You quiet the noise in me
without even trying.

When you’re near,
I remember who I was
before I apologized
for my light.

I’m not perfect.
But I’m working
to be the one I buried
alone,
when I believed
being me was wrong.

I’m slowly learning—
to trust that I
am not the polished part.
I'm the piece that stays
when
everything else falls away.

You don’t want the mask.
You want the me who laughs—
who's loud and proud
and asks big questions
at 2 a.m— like
"are you real?"

It's new,
absurd,
and all I have
are words.

You deserve the me
I left behind
when the world
was hard to love.

I show up now,
not just for us.
For more than that:
For me.