Before you stopped trusting me
with your emotions
and your time…
Before you took your
vulnerabilities
to her couch…
Before you ran away
from the space of fight
or flight…
Before stonewalling
became the norm
unable to accept our flaws…
Before personal growth
was allowed in safe spaces
never together, only apart…
Love lived here.
Before.
Love lived…
With a promise to choose over and over
The will to keep going
Together
Because family
Never ends.
Only sins break
Full release
As love flees,
Lost in nonverbal communication.
Things left unsaid
Words never heard
Validated by another
Deception under the guise of safety
Decisions made alone in
A space of together
A world forever changed.
Because a difficult conversation
Refused to surface
In a time when
Choice disappeared.
Love lived here.
Before.
Before
Laughter filled the air
Sentences finished, thoughts shared
Beneath smirks
Respect
Compliments
Tenderness
Silliness to no end.
Before…
Best friends lived here.
Under a net of love.
Inside the warmth of laughter.
Wrapped in a blanket of together
Forever.
Before love disappeared
taking the friendship along
on a wild disappearing act
Shattering worlds and memories,
Best friends lived here.
Love and laughter
united between the
sheets of unbridled passion
and on the mouths of
respectful union.
Loved lived here.
Best friends loved here.
Partners committed with the promise of forever
Shattered without conversation
Friendship dissipated in one fell swoop
Deceit and denial
Disrespect and damnation.
The after deserves a welcoming
like no other
from a space of without
into a space from within
Before.