Where I Can Be

His arms felt like courage
wrapped around my waist.
And in that one moment
I could finally let go
and just be.

No holding.
No pretending.
No hiding.
No quiet negotiations
with myself.

Just breath
and warmth
and the steady rhythm
of him and me.
In this room,
in this space,
in this moment.

There was wild freedom here
in this small, vast space.
Where the world slowly fell away
and all that remained
were the laughter lines
etched across his face,
mapping a life
lived fully,
and openly,
without apology.

I traced them with my eyes,
memorising the softness,
the history,
the stories,
and the truth they carried.

There was warmth
in the way he said my name.
Not rushed,
not hurried,
not careless,
but like it meant something
to hold it in his beautiful mouth,
to offer it back to me
with such care and ease.

And something in me answered.
And surrendered.
And loved,
and feared.

For there is power in this feeling,
deep, vulnerability, rising, undeniably,
a current I don’t want to fight,
a pull I don’t want to tame
a name I don’t want to forget.

Because for once,
this doesn’t feel like losing myself.
It feels like finding a place
where I don’t have to.
This is the place where I can just be.
Not rushed,
not hurried,
just held.

Poem by

Siân Williams