My heart was split the last we met,
and since you saw me, I grew cold.
I sought your help without regret,
while caution kept my heart controlled.

I saw your watch, you said it’s new.
Moves only when bound to your skin.
I’d tear it off to take what’s due—
the time I gave, I’ll take again.

I waited through the turning year,
through every season, holding faith
that change was coming, drawing near,
that love could even shift its shape.

Don’t be a stranger cut me deep.
I knew that nothing changed at all.
You chose the safety you could keep,
and left me standing at the wall.

You would have asked me how I felt.
You would have tried; you would have stayed.
You would have let the distance melt,
not let your fears decide that day.

So now we’ll never really know
what might have lived if you’d stayed near.
The time has come for me to go,
and set down all I carried here.

And now I am what you once were—
the measured space, the careful tone.
The push and pull I feared in you
I recognize as all my own.

My feet have never stood so sure
on something honest, something true:
I am enough. I am secure.
Just not the soul who’s tied to you.

–The Nonconformist