I Want To Coexist by Valerie Parente

Letting myself be happy
because of someone I love
is my most difficult struggle
because if I let someone bring me happiness
then what’s to stop them from taking it away?
And I don’t want to be a hostage
of someone else’s mind-frame.

I want to love again
but I don’t want to relearn
my life’s hardest lesson.
How do people do it?
How do people have relationships without surrendering their sanity?
I wish I could do it.
I wish I could do it and feel free.
And maybe my problem
is that I think in extremes,
but how am I supposed to love someone
outside of me
without making myself
their responsibility?

If I’m being perfectly honest,
I want to coexist.
I guess I just have to find that balance.

– Valerie Parente (3-11-2021)