Photo by Kleigh Balugo
I’m glad that you ended things,
because I would have wasted
years and years with you
like my mother did with my father
if you let me.
Before I met you,
I didn’t understand how
she could be with the wrong guy
for so long.
Now I understand.
Love is a filter
that amplifies the good,
doesn’t let the bad through,
and shrinks the worst
down to a size small enough to tolerate,
small enough to fix.
I should have learned
from my parents’ relationship
to fall in love with actual people
and not idealized potential versions of them,
but the filter’s distortion was so great
I couldn’t see
that there were two completely different people
on either side of it.
I’m glad that you ended things,
because I never would have seen that
if you hadn’t.
Kindergarten 