I held every kindness with the duty still attached Every joke around the table with the fear beneath the laugh Thought the hands that taught me balance owned the way I had to stand Thought remembering the good meant reenacting every plan So I separate the pressure from the care that made me strong I can thank the arms that held me without staying where they want There is room inside my ribs where obligation used to sit And the love survives the moment I stop bargaining with it I don't have to drag the whole thing Just to prove that it was real What was true is in my breathing What was theirs can lose its grip I leave the weight, I keep the worth The steady hands, the honest words The part of me that learned to bend And still came back to me again I feel the room return within No debt, no role beneath my skin I never had to lose it all To know what I could carry I keep the way we found a grin when every answer came up wrong Keep the patience in my fingers, keep the nerve to move along Leave the praise that had a price tag, leave the script behind my teeth Leave the version built for comfort that kept editing my needs I was never just the function that made everybody whole Never just the calm expression covering the overload Now the strength I gave away is turning inward when I speak I can care without abandoning the person carrying me I don't have to drag the whole thing Just to prove that I belong What was true can travel with me What was theirs is falling off I leave the weight, I keep the worth The steady hands, the honest words The part of me that learned to bend And still came back to me again I feel the room return within My own name fits against my skin I never had to lose it all To know what I could carry My shoulders find their rhythm This warmth is in my hands My body knows it's mine now And moves because it can I kept guarding every good thing Like the past could take it back But the warmth was never stored there It was moving through my hands I am not an empty space now I am not what I release What I loved became a muscle And that muscle belongs to me I leave the weight, I keep the worth The steady hands, the honest words The part of me that learned to bend Now rises with me once again I feel the room return within My own life moving through my skin I didn't have to lose the good I found what I could carry
