Poem: For the One Who Stayed Behind

They left, and the silence filled up your chest,
Like a storm with no thunder, refusing to rest.
You searched through the shadows for reasons or signs,
But absence is selfish, it leaves no outlines.

You wore their goodbye like a weight on your spine,
Mistook it for flaw, made the fault all your line.
But darling, the leaving was never your shame —
Some people break hearts just to feel unchained.

You learned how to sit with the ache in your bones,
How to build quiet into something like home.
You held your own hand when the nights got too loud,
And walked yourself out from beneath that dark cloud.

This is your rising — not from their return,
But from the soft embers of lessons you’ve earned.
You are not lacking, too much, or too small —
You were just loving where love couldn’t call.

So grow from the hollow they left in your soul,
Turn wounds into wisdom, let fragments be whole.
You are the keeper of all that you need —
The one who stayed when the others would leave.

Thank-you for reading.

Remember there are many paths back to God.

Follow your own path,

Brenda Marie