Every Time Poem by Nikola Dabic

I'd drown myself in just enough liquor
for you to use me again—
and still, I'd come back,
because in your bed,
I found something that felt like peace.

Somewhere along the way,
I stopped chasing flesh alone.
My priorities shifted.
I surrendered the dreams I once clung to,
realizing they led down a road without an end.

What is love, anyway?
Each soul writes its own version.

Is it hidden in the quietest details—
a peculiar walk,
odd habits no one else notices,
the curve of your lips,
an ocean within your eyes,
a universe spinning inside your mind,
the way you care in passing moments,
the devotion, the sacrifice,
the lingering trace of your perfume?

I need nothing else.
Each time I pass your street,
my gaze drifts your way,
without even meaning to.

And I get it now—
it's not a habit.
It's hunger.
It's longing,
the kind that lives deep beneath the skin.

I'd come to you—
but I can't go to war with myself