Your Spouse Doesn't Have The Right To Drain You

Love is not a siphon, not the slow hiss
of your breath leaving your body
to fill another’s hollow chest.
It is not the night you stay awake
listening for the sound of breaking—
the cup, the heart, the spirit.

You were born with your own fire,
your own name in the dark.
No vow ever meant surrender of the soul.
When they call their rage a sickness,
you may understand, but you must not drown.

Love does not bruise, or barter, or beg.
It does not take what cannot be given.
Pain is not proof of devotion—
you are not their cure, nor their mirror.
Step back into the light.
Your being whole is not self betrayal.
Copyright © | Year Posted 2025

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