Amelia James Poetry

(for the girl I beg will understand)

I hope you read it.
Not just the words,
but the weight of what it cost me
to write them.

I hope you hear my heart—
not the one they warned you about,
but the one that broke itself
to tell the truth.

I hope the silence between my lines
echoes louder than the rumors did.
I hope you feel the ache
that never asked for revenge—
just recognition.

I don’t need you to agree.
I don’t need you to apologize.
I just need you to see
that I was never trying to ruin you—
I was trying to survive him.

So if your hands ever tremble
as you unfold the pages,
know that mine did too.

And if you feel something
—anything—
when you read it,

then maybe,
just maybe,
you finally heard
what I’ve been trying to say
since the day
I lost my name in someone else’s story.

-Amelia James