Beside you

I would not follow you to the river.

I’d do that for no person. No one.

but God, I would walk beside you

every step until the water’s edge.

Because you are my person I want for forever.

Not in some fleeting, cinematic way—

but in the quiet, everyday truth

of knowing your laugh, your sigh,

the way your eyes close mid-story

when you’re remembering something that still hurts.

I love you in the ordinary,

in the slow mornings,

in the way your hair catches the sunrise

and makes me think, I’m home.

I bring what they never could.

Times 1000. I bring what you begged for for years an still. I’m already love. 

I bring steady—when they brought toxic chaos.

I bring peace—when they made noise.

I bring presence, not pretense.

When they ran, I stay.

When they doubted, I believed.

I bring arms that don’t just hold you—

they honor you.

I bring truth, kindness, love beyond measure,

and the strength to walk through everything hard 

without making you feel small.

I would not follow you to the river,

but I’d walk with you to its edge—

through the long roads and laughter,

through the fears you don’t name out loud,

through every version of your becoming. Through every shadow of darkness, Every season of life. 

And if the current ever calls you forward to the other side before me,

I will whisper what you’ve always known:

that I love you,

that I am yours,

and that there has never and will never be a single step

I didn’t want to take beside you.