With or Without You

I never feared

the silence.

I feared

getting used to

hearing your voice

every day,

only to learn

that one day

I would have to live

without it.

I want you

to disappear into your books.

To forget the clock.

To chase the dream

you’ve carried

long before you met me.

If that is what

happiness asks of you,

then I hope

you become impossible to reach.

And somehow,

that is exactly

what breaks my heart.

Because love is strange.

Your joy

has become my own.

When you smile,

something inside me

becomes lighter.

When you succeed,

I celebrate

as if the victory

were mine.

Yet I don’t know

whether my absence

would leave

the same silence

inside you.

Maybe it would.

Maybe it wouldn’t.

There are questions

love is never allowed

to ask.

People say,

“If you’re patient enough…

kind enough…

good enough…

love will find you.”

I wanted

to believe that.

But love

has never been

a reward for effort.

Sometimes

you can become

everything

you hoped someone needed,

and still

not be

who their heart

was searching for.

Not because

you lacked anything.

Only because

love has never obeyed

logic.

So I keep

showing up.

I laugh

at your jokes.

I listen

to your stories.

I remember

the little things

you’ve already forgotten.

And quietly,

I carry

the words

I never say.

Maybe someday

you’ll walk beside

someone else.

I hope

they protect

your heart.

I hope

they remind you

to eat.

I hope

they celebrate

every impossible dream

you chase.

I hope

they love

the version of you

I’ve been lucky enough

to know.

And if that day comes,

I’ll smile.

Not because

it won’t hurt.

But because

your happiness

was always

what I wanted most.

With you…

or without you.

With you…

or without you.