When My Presence Suffocated Her

She would never feel my absence,

for my presence never gave her peace.

It was only suffocating her,

so I made room for her to breathe.

I walked away with integrity,

never out of hatred,

I may become angry,

but I could never truly hate her.

A lifetime won’t be enough,

to speak of the emptiness

she left inside me,

that I failed to notice in her presence.

I wanted our connection,

to be rooted in freedom, not bondage.

But she filled every space around me,

while replacing my place within her life.

She never once wondered,

"What if he leaves?"

That was the measure of my place

in her world.

My voice, my advice, my care,

they all became background noise.

And when she chose a different path

I let her go with respect.

By

Sanji-Paul Arvind

**Do not judge my life based on my poems; My Poems and my life are 2 different things.