I used to shrink my world
to fit inside his name
cancel sunsets,
ignore the quiet voice in my chest,
stop answering my friends
ike my life was something
I could pause. 

I learned how easy it is
to trade your whole sky
for one person’s weather.
How you start measuring your
worth
by their replies,
how silence becomes louder
than your own thoughts.

But love isn’t supposed to
turn you smaller.
It isn’t meant to erase
your hobbies, your laughter,
the way you used to dance
when no one was watching.