Surviving Heartbreak

To Never Be The Cause

I don't think I've ever broken
someone's heart the way mine has been—
left them waiting by the phone,
eyes on the screen,
for words that never came.

No one's felt the need to trace my steps,
search my life in silence, just to know
what I'm doing, where I've gone.
I've never left someone wondering,
questions hanging in the air
that I didn't care enough to answer.

I don't think anyone's whispered to themselves,
If I can fix her, she'll love me one day,
and held onto that hope, through every hurt,
every moment I pulled away.
No one has driven home in tears,
asking, What did I do wrong?
or What does she have that I don't?

No one's been left thinking that maybe
my touch could make them feel whole,
less hollow, less lost.
No one has yearned for me so deeply
that it changed the rhythm of their days,
left them to sit with the ache
I might have unknowingly placed.

The more I think about it,
the more I know I can't be the cause,
can't offer a promise I might not keep,
or let someone lean on a thread
so thin it could snap.

The heartbreaks I've lived
weren't by mistake—
we felt the breaking coming,
even if we didn't know how to stop it.

So I've learned to be careful,
to carry kindness in each choice,
to hold others gently,
the way I still wish to be held—
though I've yet to feel it,
I give what I know it should be.

—MistakenGenius