Stories

Did you ever notice
The anger you feel
When stories reflect real life
The way you rant about
Bad writing, plot holes
Characters behaving out of character
When a character is forgiven
Too easily, too fast, like you forgave
Your family, your friend, your lover
Because you love them and you
Just want to forget

When a story has no closure
No neatly tied ends, all just
Partial explanations and messy details
And you’re left wondering
What the point was, like you did after
Your last breakup, your last failure,
Your last missed opportunity
Left dissatisfied and always wondering
What could have been

When a coincidence occurs,
Two events that should have
Been connected, should have made sense
But didn't
You try your hardest to convince yourself that
It means something, it’s a sign
It’ll be important in the long run
And you’ll sigh when it doesn’t, angry and
Disappointed, like the last time you waited
On a sign, on some impossible coincidence,
So impossible it couldn’t be a coincidence
But it was

Did you ever notice
The anger that bubbles in your chest
The betrayal that stings your thoughts
The way you push the story away,
Reject it and forget it and tell yourself that
It’s bad, it’s stupid, it doesn’t make sense
Because in those moments, the story
Is not a story. It is
A mirror, a reminder
And no longer your escape.