Don't make a home out of me when I was only the place you came to rest after being turned away from the door you truly wanted. Don't call it love when I was never your first choice, only the shadow you clung to when the light you longed for would not stay. I gave you everything, pieces of myself I didn't even know I could still give, and still it wasn't enough. You could move mountains for someone else, yet stumbled at the bare minimum when it came to me. Don't slip back into my life because the one you wanted closed their arms, don't come back to me like I am a safety net meant to catch you each time you fall. My heart is not a consolation prize, my body not the shelter you crawl into when the world refuses you warmth. Do not look at me with regret disguised as love. Do not call me yours when you only stayed because you couldn't have them. Do not return expecting a welcome when you left me vacant, emptied, and aching. The door is no longer open. I will not let myself be the home you settle for when you could not claim the one you truly desired.