10 Years

"I don’t want you to hate me," He says
Then she says, “I could never hate you,    
You built a strong woman with your insults.    
Now I know what I will and won’t put up with.”    
 
You taught me to cook,    
How refreshing it is to bake cookies at midnight.    
You’re the reason I dance    
In the frozen section to music I never knew.    
 
We bonded over our broken pasts,    
Both of us screaming childhood screams.    
We saw the worst in those    
Who were supposed to love us.    
Insults echoing in our homes.    
 
Funny how we both ended up    
On the streets so young,    
Yet, I’ll always hold love for you in my heart.    
You caught my tears,    
Then became the reason I cried.    
 
I tried to do everything to make you smile,    
Only for you to retreat into your pain,    
Preferring to sit and weep    
With your depression.    
 
Not me, I take my sadness by the hand,    
And together we chase joy,    
Feel the sun on our faces today.    
I learned to love my inner child,    
But you kept silencing his cries.    
 
Oh, how I wanted us to last forever,    
But reality set in—    
I became your crutch,    
While you moaned and blamed    
The accident for everything.    
 
We fought long before then,    
But never so bad, never this deep.    
I want you to look in my eyes    
And know a piece of my heart still holds love.    
 
But it’s time for our roads to part,    
God told me to run,    
There’s nothing more I can do for you.    
 
NP