Sunny day in the woods 🌿

They warned me about still water how it mirrors the sky while swallowing the light

You loved me like that quiet, reflective depths disguised as devotion

At first, I mistook your silence for peace Mistook your jealousy for gravity something that kept me close kept me safe from drifting too far from your shore

But still water does not move it does not sing against rocks or sparkle in rebellion it waits

And in the waiting, it gathers silted words unspoken blame the soft decay of apologies that never reach the surface

You called it love when you measured my laughter You called it care when you trimmed my edges to ft the outline of your fear

I shrank like a shoreline in drought

Every time I tried to ripple you stilled me with a look with a sigh with the heavy hand of “after all I’ve done”

So I learned to float quietly to swallow stones to mistake the ache in my lungs for oxygen

Still water reflects, yes but only what hovers above it Beneath, it keeps its cold

One night, I stepped in past my ankles past my knees until your silence filled my ears and my name sounded foreign

That was when I understood I was not drowning because I was weak

I was drowning because you never meant to let me swim

So I chose the river instead wild, loud unapologetically moving

Let it call me reckless let it bruise me on stones honest enough to show themselves

Still water may look like peace but I have felt its hands at my throat