The most well intentioned man on earth

 

To hear you tell it 

You've never intended anything unkind 

You've never intended to act like you're the only person who matters 

You've never intended to leave all the labor to her

You've never intended to be so callous, immature, juvenile, misogynistic, petty, uncaring, self-centered 

You've never intended to betray her trust over 

and over 

and yet 

When she tells you 

It's happening 

You keep doing it 

The dehumanization 

of that 

So often acting like your father and so blind to it

Too weak and fragile to see anything clearly 

Thinking yourself awake 

You've never even read bell hooks, Butler, Friedan, de Beauvoir, Wollstonecraft 

You've never had to read bell hooks, Butler, Friedan, de Beauvoir, Wollstonecraft 

Never had to search for glimmers of your own humanity 

Never lived as a second class citizen, subject to all the violence and all the clarity that entails 

Never been married to an alcoholic 

All the damage 

that entails 

They will never stop treating you poorly. 

They will never stop mattering more than everyone else on earth. 

No matter, you 

are never not the most affected  

Meanwhile the canary gasps for breath 

She told you 

Lies wrapped in lies, then deep fried 

Dried up at the center 

The heart, burnt to a crisp 

From now on I would like to feel the opposite of diminished