If You Stayed

I left the door unlocked

Like maybe you’d come back

Two cups in the sink

Still waiting on your laugh

You said, “I love you”

Like you meant goodbye

But I replayed it different

A thousand times

⸻

Maybe I was too late

Maybe you were too tired

But I thought you were the end

Of every fire

⸻

If you stayed

Would we still be driving with the windows down?

Singing like we owned this broken town

Would we still be chasing what we couldn’t name

If you stayed?

Would I still be lost in your in-between?

Holding on to halfway dreams?

I used to wish you never walked away…

If you stayed

⸻

Your hoodie’s in a box

Haven’t touched it in years

It used to wreck me

Now it just feels clear

The tears, the ache, the lonely nights

Led me to a better life

The kind you never could’ve given me

And I finally see…

⸻

If you stayed

I wouldn’t be waking up to the love of my life

Wouldn’t hear “Daddy” in the morning light

Would’ve missed the joy I get every day

If you stayed

I wouldn’t know what real love means

Or what forever’s really supposed to be

You were the ending that opened the way

And I thank God…

You didn’t stay

⸻

You were a chapter, not the page

And I’m grateful now…

You didn’t stay