What Love Left Behind

A personal poem drawn from lived experience, capturing the silent ways love can fracture the mind and how healing begins through distance, caution, and self-preservation.

I don’t scream anymore�"
I flinch.

Love used to knock gently,
now it sounds like a warning
behind every door.

You didn’t just leave,
you rewired my mind,
taught my heart to hesitate,
taught trust to feel unsafe.

I learned how to smile
while breaking quietly,
how to say “I’m fine”
when my thoughts were bleeding.

Kindness feels temporary.
Care feels suspicious.
They ask why I keep my distance�"
how do I explain
that survival changes the shape of love?

I’m not cold.
I’m cautious.
I’m healing in a place
you destroyed and walked away from.

I still want connection.
I just fear it now.

So I protect myself�"
not because I don’t believe in love,
but because I survived it once
when it was cruel.

Author's Note

This piece is deeply personal and drawn from my own experiences. It speaks about the mental toll of a toxic relationship and the slow, careful process of healing afterward.

Reviews

[JayG]

• A personal poem drawn from lived experience...

And because it is, it's your reaction to unspecified events, and therefore, meaningless to the reader who's unaware of those motivating events.

My point? Stop talking TO the reader. They expect to be moved, emotionally, as a form of entertainment. So instead of talking about how you feel, make the READER feel, and care. Involve, don't talk TO them.

Instead of something like, "I cried at the funeral," give the READER reason to weep.

You might want to read Mary Oliver's, A Poetry Handbook. It's a gem of a book, filled with useful, and interesting information.

[TheRealEnrique]

Thanks for your feedback JayG!! Means a lot to me