Maybe this is what it feels like

to have a happy ending.

Before, I longed to have time

to myself, to like who I liked,

to love who I loved,

and I always do that now.

We have no secrets now,

and we argue when we want to-

but never in a real fight.

Not like before,

when survival was what mattered.

And yet,

we never take anything for granted.

It is a hard-earned victory.

Sometimes when I am alone,

I think of the past.

Of the choices I've made

and of the regrets I have

lingering inside me.

I used to think

that there was never hope.

But there was.

And that's why

when I wake up to

the sunrise

and step to the balcony

with the friends I love

while we each in turn

accept the past,

we never forget

the future.