I Am a Galaxy

My fingertips brush the scars etched into my skin
And I think to myself,
“This is why he left-
the wildfire in your veins burned out,
leaving a galaxy of a girl made of stars
from a universe long forgotten.
You were created to be destroyed,
to give love and then fade quietly out of sight.”
But I will no longer be silent.

In the mirror, it is two am.
I have not slept in two days
and a ghost haunts the hollows beneath my eyes,
whispering to me
“you are a city, crumbling and burning,
your wildfire was replaced by her candle flame,
you’ll never love again,
you were just a sentence in his book.”
But I am writing my own story.

The dull ache in my chest screams
“you weren’t good enough for him”
but the smile curving my lips says
“I am good enough for myself,
I am a galaxy before I am a girl,
mine before I am anyone else’s
and I will not set fire to myself
to keep him warm.”