PeonyMagazine

  When the year shattered, And love slipped out the door with another woman’s name, And the life I thought was mine  crumbled into silence.   I stopped eating. Stopped sleeping. Panic attacks clawed at my chest until I could barely breathe. I thought… everyone will leave me.   And then there is Stormi. My  Persian cat . Soft gray fur, steady golden eyes. He never looked away.   When I cried until my body shook, he climbed onto my lap, pressed close,  He never asked me to stop crying. He only said, in the way animals can: I am here, I am not leaving. like he could stitch the cracks in me just by staying.   I carried him everywhere,  Afraid to be without the only one I trusted not to abandon me.  People drifted, Friends grew quiet, Even family seemed far away.   But Stormi stayed. Silent, watchful, His little heartbeat steady against mine.  The kind of loyalty  I didn’t know I deserved. They say animals don’t understand hear...