Will You Still Love Me?

will you still love me? 

after everything that’s said

will you still love me? 

when i stop being the person you know 

when i start to be my real self

as i struggle to find the truth hiding between the two 

will you still love me? 

when hypotheticals become reality 

when your jokes become your truth 

when your jokes are revealed as my truth?

will you still love me? 

when the image you’ve concocted of me

the person i hope i stay as forever

is revealed as a fraud, a facade crafted to make you love me

will you still love me?

when you realize that your love is conditional

that you’ve loved a lie for so many years

will you still love yourself? 

when you acknowledge the hate within you 

and the problem that you breeded so long ago 

will you allow me to love myself?

without fear of exclusion, fear of hatred brewing underneath the rim?

will you give me the space to love myself, even if you haven’t learned how to do so yourself? 

do you still love me? 

now that it’s been said and done

there’s no way to get back to what once was 

and we’re left now in a series of discomfort and pain 

and we can never go back to where we were before

is there still love to give?

do you love the person standing in front of you?

were my fears unfounding, my worries displaced?

was your love never a question?

was i caught between misconceptions or who you really are and who i thought you were?

will i be proved wrong?

or was i right?

and my worst fears turn into reality 

and i uncover the haunting truth 

that i was right to ever question

will you still love me?