Before You Had a Name

I knew you long before I saw you

Before the world could make you real

You were a quiet weight inside me

Something I already knew to feel

I spoke to nothing in particular

In rooms that hadn't heard your sound

Made promises I never practiced

Just hoping I'd be good somehow

You weren't a dream you weren't an answer

You weren't a future dressed in flame

You were a presence finding gravity

Before you had a name

Before you had a name

I learned to stay

I learned how love could be a place

No face no claim

No need to explain

I was already changed

I watched the world grow more deliberate

As if it knew you'd soon arrive

Every ordinary moment

Suddenly learned how to survive

I counted time in smaller measures

In breaths in light in quiet vows

Not asking who you'd someday be

Just asking who I was right now

There was fear I never spoke of

There was joy I couldn't frame

But everything I carried waited

Before you had a name

I didn't need to see your eyes

To know I'd never leave

I didn't need to hold your hand

To feel responsibility

I wasn't ready

I wasn't strong

But love arrived

And proved me wrong

Before you had a name

I took my place

Not in front but close behind

No shape no face

Just open space

And a promise made in time

Before you had a name

You made me whole

In ways I didn't understand

I didn't lead

I didn't claim

I learned how to be the ground you stand on

You were never something I owned

You were never something I claimed

You were love arriving quietly

Before you had a name