If you must go

I do not wish to hold you like a chain, For love that binds is love in vain. If your joy exists where I do not tread, Then go — I shall remain with ghosts instead. I’ve tasted silence more bitter than death, Yet still I whispered your name with each breath. To love is not to cage, nor to command— It is to bleed quietly and still understand. So be happy, even if I am not the cause, My sorrow is sacred; I wear it with no pause. If I am a shadow in your golden day, Know that I vanish, so you may stay.