you look beautiful.
no, really.
the kind of beautiful that makes people cry
even when they don’t know why.

lace like mist around your shoulders,
lilies lining the aisle,
his hands steady, waiting—
& you, smiling like you believe it.

& maybe you do.
mostly.

but i see it—
the way your fingers curl
just a little too tight around the bouquet,
how your breath catches like a trapped bird
before the music starts.

they think it’s nerves.
they think it’s love.
but i know better.

you don’t recognize me yet.
but i’ve known you a long time.
longer than he has.
longer than they have.

i know the part of you that still wonders—
who you could’ve been,
where you could’ve gone,
what it means to wake up
without belonging to anyone but yourself.

i know the weight of this dress,
how it pulls at your ribs,
how it shimmers like a promise
we weren’t sure we wanted to make.

they say this is the dream.
a man who holds doors & stands tall,
a love that comes with papers & prayers.
a family that claps when you belong
to someone else.

but i came to tell you—
there is another way.

one where your name is yours alone,
where nights are quiet but never empty,
where the love you choose
doesn’t need permission to exist.

one where you find yourself,
where you lose the ones who never saw you anyway,
& still,
somehow,
you do not break.

i do not ask you to run.
i do not ask you to stay.

only to know—
that even alone,
you will never be lonely.

the music swells.
your heart holds its breath.

i place a hand—your hand—on your chest.
feel that?

that’s you.
still here.
still whole.

& then,
just like that,
i am gone.