The Man Who Stayed

I do not need the crowd’s applause,
Nor strangers saying I belong.
I’ve learned to live without a cause
To prove to them that I am strong.

The doors that closed along my way
Taught lessons no one else could teach.
They showed which hearts were meant to stay
And which would drift beyond my reach.

So stay when I am hard to read,
When silence settles in my eyes.
Stay when old wounds begin to bleed
Beneath the calm that I disguise.

Stay when the midnight hours grow long,
And restless thoughts refuse to cease.
Love is not proven when we’re strong,
But when we help each other breathe.

I was not shaped by easy years,
But by the storms I traveled through.
I’ve carried doubt and buried tears,
Yet still believed in something true.

I’m far from perfect, this I know,
No polished saint for all to see.
But if you stay when shadows grow,
No man will love you more than me.