I do not know what to do when I can no longer run.

I can no longer run from my true self, who was in disguise when we met.

I don’t mean to run and hide, to conceal my flaws.

Impossible when you have already seen the parts of me I have yet to accept.

You make space for me to grow

to listen, to understand without judgment,

You reassure me when it feels as though the world is falling apart.

when fear convinces me that distance is safer than love,

when I mistake the urge to run

for a reason not to stay.

When I’m with you, I feel as though we will always be OK.

Even when I cannot find the words to say,

even when the parts of me I fear begin to show,

I am learning that love does not ask me to run away.

I am learning how to stay.