by anonymous //
today,
my ex-girlfriend told me
she wanted us to get back together.
how do i tell her i
didn’t just survive the breakup,
i thrived?
i didn’t grieve
because i wasn’t experiencing a loss,
i didn’t cry
because there was nothing to be sad about;
i found great friends and a brand new job
i started studying for tests (and acing them)
i ate alongside my classmates (and enjoyed it)
i finally felt free (of her)
her, on the other hand,
she cried
every day,
posted
all over her finsta
about how much she
loved me and
missed me and
hated me and
loved me;
how could she not?
i was the one who broke her heart.
i was the bad guy,
i was the one who said
“we need a break”
even though this is a breakup poem
and breakup poems are supposed to be written by the victim.
we were best friends first,
(as they always are)
the ones who unfailingly
texted “good morning” and “good night”
asked each other if our days went well
and comforted each other when they did not
we were an epic love story,
all of our friends were jealous
and they admired
us. we were going to last
Forever
until one day
in the middle of the summer
i woke up
feeling nothing for her
and the next day
and the next day
and the next
until i couldn’t just ignore it anymore,
it couldn’t just be something
in the back of my mind
pushed deep down because
i wanted us to remain:
in love?
comfortable?
epic.
we tried to remain best friends,
because how could you live without your best friend when
breaking up with your girlfriend?
but there’s something so wrong about
shit-talking your ex to your best friend
when your best friend is your ex,
and the boundaries between
girlfriend and
bestfriend had
blurred so much they were
impossible to untangle.
we were best friends first
until ‘we’ became ‘me’ and ‘her’
and ‘us’ became a chore because
‘we’ overstayed its welcome
and it was impossible to remain ‘best’ or ‘friends’ anymore, so
today, when
my ex-girlfriend said
she wanted to get back together with me
i had to accept my fate
as the villain in our epic.
norulescornell.com 