Giving Up

Giving Up

You don't give up like giving advice.
All in a hurried rush
as though the words burn your tongue.

It's like a prolonged goodbye.
Everything that should be
has been said.

You keep writing words
already read,
over and over again.

You give up the way
you first said I love you.
One spun out word at a time.

Fearful, with your heels dug in.
Breathless but subject
to the weight of your momentum.

There's no way to know
how far you'll fall
or if you'll be burned only so you can grow.