After Forever

I thought I’d only do it once.
The vows, the choosing, the long stretch of life wrapped around one person.
We meant it, all of it, and still, we unraveled.
No one prepares you for how heavy memory can be.
It doesn’t shout, it just lingers like a ghost refusing to move on.
Her name still tastes familiar when I say it in my sleep.
Sometimes I dream we’re still us.
Still trying, still young, still tied between space and time.
And I wake up guilty, burdened for feeling something.
There’s this ache that doesn’t want to be healed.
A quiet loyalty to the life that almost was.
And yet, somehow, you flipped my world upside down.
You came unexpected but became a welcomed surprise.
Not a replacement, not a fix, not some soft version of what I lost.
You are entirely different and exactly right.
Loving you feels like discovering I still have a heart
and realizing it’s bigger than I remembered.
It fits you, it wants you, it needs you.
I won’t lie, there’s fear in starting over
but there’s more fear in never starting at all.
You hold me not as a rescue but as a witness.
As someone who knows love doesn’t always last
but still dares to build it anyway.
I don’t know what forever means anymore
but I know I want it with you.