I Killed Her With Romance

Not the soft kind

Not roses 

Not candlelight

But the kind that arrives

Like a prophecy written in heat

And carried by a man

Who mistakes devotion

For destiny

I ruined her gently

With attention too sharp

With tenderness that felt

Like a vow she never made

With a hunger that turned

Every moment into a ritual

She didn’t know she was part of

I carved altars out of ordinary days

Placed her name on each one

Asked her to stand still

While I worshipped a version of her

She never agreed to become

And when she stepped back

Even an inch

The whole cathedral collapsed

Not because she left

But because I built it

On the trembling idea

That love must be returned

With equal fire

Or not at all

So yes

I killed her with romance

With the weight of being adored

Too intensely

Too quickly

Too completely

But in the ruins

I found the truth

It wasn’t her heart that died

It was the illusion

That love is something

You can force into blooming

By burning brighter

Than the other person can bear