Before the bleeding,

there was a boy.

who believed in magic,

who thought love could save him.

he didn’t know what love was.

he just knew

it had to be beautiful.

this collection isn’t about that boy.

he deserves to be remembered.

without him,

none of this would exist.

then came living.

the ache.

suddenly, the page wasn’t fantasy.

it was a flood.

the hands that once reached for love,

now clung to it like breath.

these poems come from it.

from the version of me

who still believed,

it was possible to love

without losing yourself.

he fought hard.

he burned fast.

and learned the hard way.

that love without self

will cost everything.

but the boy is gone now.

these pieces aren’t about what was lost.

they’re about what stayed.

TOO MUCH releases September 19.

A few advance copies are still open for readers who want to read it early and leave a real review. Here’s the link:

Too Much (Poems by a Broken Boy) by Joel Velasquez Soto - Review Copy | BookSirens

Thank you

Poems by a Boy Who Bled, a Man Who Lived was originally published in From the Arena on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.