The Unfinished Bond

I feel my body quiet when I’m with you, like something finally stops running.

And then something else wakes up, alert, watchful, afraid that calm

is temporary. I love you from that contradiction. I feel how much I lean

toward you, sometimes before I choose to. It scares me how natural it

feels. How easy it is to forget where I end. I don’t doubt

the feeling. I doubt myself inside it. I never asked you to save

me. What came out as anger was fear without language. A younger version

of me grabbing for safety. I needed love most exactly when I didn’t know