I've Never Shared This With Anyone

This poem was written about visiting my boyfriend’s hometown for the first time.

you told me
i’ve never shared this with anyone before
and I didn’t realize how much that meant
until I saw it with my own eyes

love
	today you sounded younger

standing on the cracked sidewalk
of a street that once was your whole world

you looked at your home country
like it had just proposed to you

I watched you become 
a boy in borrowed sneakers again
grinning at ghosts I could not see
pointing out the centuries old bakery
and clearing where you used to play

the houses were smaller than your stories
but your eyes
your eyes were cathedral-sized
lit from the inside
by something that never really left

you kept saying things like
it’s weird being back
	
I think this place makes more sense with you
	
thank you for being here

then your fingers would find mine

and I held the hand
of every version of you
all at once.

---

Hi, thank you for reading my diary!

This poem was written about visiting my boyfriend’s hometown for the first time. Not even a year into being together he brought me to Germany. The town was a magical place, but what really stuck with me was seeing him react to being back. He ran his hands over the railing along the stream, took a deep breath of the fresh air, and just seemed so at home.

I wrote a lot of my newest collection in his family home there. The entire 51-poem collection is rooted in themes of fairytales, healing, hope, and learning what it means to finally feel safe somewhere, with someone.

Writing these poems there felt like stepping into a version of my life I wasn’t sure I was allowed to have—soft mornings, shared meals, quiet laughter in rooms that had held generations of stories before ours. It made me think a lot about what “home” really is. Sometimes it’s a place. Sometimes it’s a person. Sometimes it’s the version of yourself you’re finally able to become when you are safe and loved well.

Thank you for being here and reading pieces of my heart as I share them. If this poem (or this story) resonates with you, my newest collection is available for preorder, and it would mean the world to me to have you be part of this chapter.

If you need assistance, or different shipping please let me know! A Crown of Sunlit Things is also available via e-book on Amazon!

My boyfriend looking out at the stream after 8 years away from his hometown.

The view out of the window where I wrote this poem (and many others from this collection)