Live for me

Would you live for me?

Everyone says

“I would die for you”

like death is proof,

like one moment of surrender could ever hold a life,

like love is something you announce

instead of breathe.

But would you live for me?

Would you stay when my thoughts are storms

and my hands tremble

because I don’t know how to hold myself together?

Would you stay when the nights stretch too long

and I am hollow,

my voice a shadow

you can barely catch?

But would you live for me

when I am no longer impressive

when my sadness spills everywhere

and there is nothing poetic about it.

Would you live for me

when I am tired of being strong

tired of explaining myself

tired of pretending I understand

what is happening inside my own head.

There are days

I am not a person

I am a weight.

I am the pause in conversation

the sigh you did not plan to release.

Would you live for me then.

Would you wake up

and still say my name gently

even when loving me feels like work

even when staying feels heavier

than leaving quietly.

I do not want to be your sacrifice.

I want to be your choice.

Dying only asks for one brave moment.

Living asks for thousands

most of them unseen

most of them thankless.

Living asks you to sit with me

while I unravel

and not rush me back together

just so you can breathe easier.

So no

do not die for me.

Live.

Live with me in the silence.

Live with me in the days

that do not heal anything.

Live with me when all I can offer

is my breathing

and the fear that one day

you will stop choosing it.

Stay.

Stay when I am heavy.

Stay when I am afraid.

Stay when my love

is not rewarding

just real.

Because if you can live for me

in all this ordinary suffering

then maybe

I will finally believe

that I am not too much

that I am not temporary

that I am worth

the long, quiet work

of being loved.

---

Breathing with you.

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