I’m leaving with my dignity intact.

I stayed longer than I should have,
waiting at the edges of your life,
hoping one day you’d finally let me in,
that love would soften you enough
to make room for me.

But if wishes were horses,
I would’ve ridden straight out of that waiting.
Instead, I stood still,
feeding my heart on maybes,
calling endurance devotion.

I’m sorry it took me this long to understand
that knocking doesn’t make a door want to open,
and loving harder doesn’t make someone choose you.

I fought for spaces
that were never meant to hold me.
I argued with silence,
negotiated with absence,
and called it hope.

But today, I’m done.
I will stop fighting for rooms
I was never invited to stay in.
I will stop shrinking
to fit a heart
that never wanted me to stay.

This isn’t bitterness it’s clarity.
Not resentment but release.

I’m leaving with my dignity intact,
my love still whole,
and my hands finally free
from doors that were never mine to open.