I always knew you had chosen me.
I just didn’t realize why.
I missed you, even when you were the source of my pain.
You comforted me with lies.
You loosened my grip on reality.
You kept me close, sometimes too close,
as if exhaustion were proof of loyalty.
I would wake up and you were already there,
in my inbox, in my calendar, in my pulse.
I couldn’t speak.
But I had nothing to say.
At least, that’s what you told me.
I believed you.
You were all I had.
Despite my hesitation,
you showed me the benefits of staying
and the tragic accidents that could happen without you.
Thank you for needing me.
I trusted you when you fed me deadlines,
held me to expectations,
told me I was exceptional.
You said no one else could do what I did.
You said the place would fall apart without me.
And I believed you.
The praise came easily.
The help did not.
You clapped while I carried it.
You smiled while I stayed late.
You thanked me for saving you
from the work you would never do.
Then I became harder to manage
once I stopped confusing praise with partnership.
All these years
you thought I didn’t know the truth.
I knew.
I just hadn’t named it yet.
I watched you praise me
so you wouldn’t have to change.
I watched you call it growth
when it was convenience.
You thought my silence meant dependence.
It meant I was learning.
And when I finally spoke,
that’s when you lost your power.
That’s when I saw the knife.
When you said this was for my growth.
When you said we both had to make sacrifices.
That’s when you called it freedom.
And I understood.
The knife was never for me.
It was for the version of me
you mistook for yours.
I let you cut it away.
Yes, come to me.
Thank you for showing me.
Thank you for revealing yourself.
When you entered every part of my life
and left your mark on my days,
you wrote your intention into my body.
And I read it.
And I smiled.
Thank you for finding me.
Thank you for promoting me.
Thank you for praising me.
Thank you for using me.
Thank you for teaching me
exactly who you are.
