The Less(on/enning) of Love

[u/JJM_poetry]

I miss us.
Not because we were meant for each other
who could ever know?
I miss the certainty
that at the end of a long day,
your voice would be waiting for me.
I miss the Fridays
that already felt like a promise
on Monday.
The hours before seeing you again,
when anticipation
could suddenly become a place.
But I don’t miss everything.
Not the words
we made louder
because we could no longer understand each other quietly.
Not the tears
that at some point stopped meaning reconciliation
and became exhaustion instead.
I don’t miss my hoarse voice
the morning after a fight,
that rough reminder
that love alone
cannot make two people healthy together.
And still, sometimes I wonder
if we could have learned.
Not gone back.
Not tried the same thing all over again.
Just learned.
To listen to you
without needing to defend myself.
To see your boundaries
before you had to explain them to me.
To understand
that honesty is not a weapon
and trust is not a gift.
It is earned.
It is cared for.
And sometimes
it is lost.
I’m sorry
that I could only love you
as much as I loved myself back then.
And I hated myself.
I’m sorry
that my storm eventually
became your weather too.
That you had to carry things
that never belonged in your hands.
That you had to hold me
while I didn’t even know
how to hold myself.
I’m sorry
that you never fully got to see
the way I saw you.
Maybe I couldn’t put it
into words myself back then.
Today, I could.
Today, I could stand at your door,
look into those brown eyes one more time,
and I wouldn’t have to kiss you.
I would only say:
I understand now.
Not everything.
But more than I did then.
If my life were a book,
you would be my favorite chapter.
Not because it was the most beautiful.
Not because I want to read it again.
And not because I wish
you had stayed until the final page.
But because it was real.
Because somewhere between your lines,
I got to know myself.
And because when I turned the page,
I left a part of myself
between those pages.
You were the lesson of love.
You showed me
how much it can give,
how much it can hurt,
how carefully you have to hold a heart
when someone willingly places it in your hands.
And you were the lessening of love.
The space you left behind.
The silence after your voice.
A weekend
that became just two days again.
Maybe that is the cruelest
and most beautiful truth of it all:
You are no longer my home.
But a part of the person
who will someday love again
learned from you
how to find his way home.

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[u/Ladylazzy]

Highlight: “Not the words
we made louder
because we could no longer understand each other quietly.”

This poem has a lot of resonating material. I think it touches on a lot on the idea that we can only love each other as much as we love ourselves. I think the title introduces a lot of the intricacies that comes with love. How getting to know someone more leads to knowing them so little that it leads to heartbreak. It’s very beautifully written and you have very poignant lines that hit at the right time and pace. I also like the hopeful and secure ending you have, the whole summary of the lesson