Reclaiming the Flame
I did not lose myself.
I stopped giving myself away.
I did not step back
to disappear
or to abandon you.
I stepped back
to return to the fire
I kept dimming
so you could stay comfortable.
I learned the quiet cost
of making myself smaller—
how easily warmth
becomes ash
when it is always offered away.
This distance
is not rejection.
It is breath.
It is oxygen.
It is flame remembering
how to burn.
And I will not dim again.
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