The Love I Couldn’t Hold

by MissT

He was soft with me.
Gentle in ways I didn’t know how to return.
He wanted me
more than I could handle,
more than I could hold.

He waited,
showed up,
asked again,
and again.
And I…
I shut the door a little more each time.

Not because I didn’t care
but because I was tired.
Because love felt like another weight
on shoulders already breaking.

He gave and gave,
and I backed away,
not in cruelty,
but in quiet collapse.

I stopped trying,
because trying started to cost me
parts of myself
I was afraid I’d never get back.

Now I sit with that truth.
Not proud, not ashamed
just real.
Just raw.
Just me,
remembering a man who wanted me
when I no longer knew how to be wanted.

He was soft.
And I was hard.
And we both lost.

But if nothing else
let this be the story I own:

I loved him.
And I left.
Not because it wasn’t love
but because I forgot how to receive it.