Wasn’t searching for love in my 20s, feeling like I was 16
Lovestruck, naive mindset, enticed by some teenage dream
I gazed at your visage, quite angelic
My faith soon to be deconstructed in the flames like some unknown relic

You swept me off my feet with lies and sweet nothings
Those parties, those hangouts, all so I can feel something

On a scorching June night, I found my courage and confessed
The happiness that welled up from me, the moment you said yes
Hand on my thigh, you confirmed that you liked me
A first kiss so magical, so enchanting, so free

But everything came with a catch when you pulled out the sarcophagus
You said “I want something casual. You’re too innocent and monogamous”

Buried before it even started, I stumbled and fell
Yet I followed a “friendship” on this path to hell
As weeks passed by, I figured I was one of the two people you chased
And at this point in my life, I had not realized I was falling from grace

21 felt like torture when it should feel like fun
Wasting my kindness and my affection when you gave me none
Always worried, the well was poisoned by you
A codependent situationship that I stubbornly thought I’d see through

Even without saying it all my friends could see
I was in the mindset of “I can change him” if he ever heeds my pleas
But things only got worse as I began to lose myself
I slowly came to accept I was just some trophy on your shelf

You didn’t “like” me, you just used me
Thrown me overboard into the ever roaring sea

Give me back this innocence that you spoke of
Because I can’t even recognize myself or comprehend what should be love

Your damage has even affected me to this day
When my mind almost made a best friend a villain for just confessing what I needed to say

But this time it was different, my head stays afloat
Although I still struggle to even stay on this boat
This hellfire tango, I’m closing this era
Your “love” was stale like bread from Panera
© Michael Kevin Olegario