Love, At What Cost?

Category: Creative Content | Tags(#): Poetry , love , domestic abuse

Image credits: How Emotional Abuse Affects Your Body-The Toll It Takes

Published May 4, 2026, 12:10 p.m. by Pearl Mave_rick
System Generated Audio Version (SGAV):

To my Love or whoever holds this trembling piece of me,

I still remember when your voice was the safest place I knew. When laughter lived easily between us, spilling into quiet mornings where you cooked for me as if love were something you could plate and serve. You would kiss my forehead like a promise. You called me beautiful in ways that made me believe it was a fact, not just a feeling.

You took me out into the world like I was something worth showing off. Lights, music, long walks—your hand wrapped around mine like I belonged there. You bought me gifts I never asked for, said I deserved softness, said I deserved joy. And I believed you completely that I built my future inside your words.

We traveled, remember? Places where the air felt lighter, where you looked at me like I was still new, still magic. And when you asked me to marry you, my heart didn’t hesitate, it ran toward you. Toward forever.

Then I carried your child.

I carried life inside me, stretched my bones and skin into something scary. I broke and rebuilt myself to bring your blood into this world. I thought that would deepen your love for me, that you would look at me and see strength, sacrifice, beauty reborn.

But something in your eyes shifted.

Where you once saw a woman, you began to see a flaw.

Where you once held me gently, your hands learned violence.

The first time you hit me, the world didn’t shatter...it paused. As if even time didn’t believe what had just happened. You cried. You begged. You said it was a mistake, a moment, a madness that would never return.

But it did.

Again.

And again.

And again.

Your apologies became rehearsed. Your rage became familiar. And 

I became smaller, Quieter, Careful.

I learned the sound of your footsteps, the warning in your silence, the way the air changed before the storm start. I learned how to exist without taking up space. How to breathe without being heard.

And in the ruins of who I used to be , I decided to write this to console myself:

Once I was a masterpiece, unbroken and bright,

Skin kissed by love, not shadowed by fright.

My body was poetry, fluent and free,

A home filled with soft lights, whole, and me.

Then love grew teeth and called it care,

Left fingerprints of darkness everywhere.

Now I wear storms beneath my skin,

A war outside… and one within.

If these words are found, it means I have already lost the last fight I kept trying to win.

It means the love I believed in has finally buried me.

Please understand this,

I did not stay because I was weak.

I stayed because I remembered who you used to be.

Because I loved the man you showed me before the darkness claimed him.

Because I hoped...God, I hoped...that love would bring him back.

But hope does not stop a hand once it has learned to destroy.

If I am gone, let my story breathe where I no longer can. Let it echo in the ears of anyone who thinks love and pain must live together.

They must not.

And if there is anything left of me in this world, let it be this truth:

I was once loved gently.

I was once whole.

And I deserved to remain that way.

A woman who loved until it cost her everything.

About Author:

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Read all posts by Pearl Mave_rick

Hello I'm Pearl, a day dreamer, over thinker and I love to put all in writing , I have a simple life but a complicated mind... Thank you for spending your precious time to read my post 💕💕💕🙏👌🎉💌💐💮🍀🌼