Soft-Eyed Girl

You say it like it was nothing

Like things just happen that way

Like what you did didn’t land anywhere

But it did

In the part of me that still believed in something steady

You always looked at me

like I would stay soft-eyed, open, there to come back to

And I suppose I was

There is a version of me that waits longer than she should

gives more than she can afford to and calls it love

You knew her

I think that’s the part that sits wrong

Not that you left

But that you knew exactly how far I would bend before I broke

And I let you, not because I didn’t see it

But because I wanted to be wanted,

more than I wanted to be right

That soft-eyed girl, she’s still here

I can feel her every time I almost reach

And I don’t hate her

I hold her closer now

Not hidden, not hardened

just… kept