Two roads diverged in a wood, and
I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the
difference. ~ Robert Frost
In coming apart,
there is the tendency to be petty,
angry,
mean.
Whenever possible, I chose otherwise
for this is who I am.
I considered
you kind,
in the beginning,
until I realized that broken
trumps kind.
I know this now.
Endings are not amusing
for either party;
the ender
or the endee,
in spite of their relative differences.
The endee’s ending is obvious;
shock,
grief,
betrayal,
abandonment,
anger.
To end well takes
courage and a sense of self
you, unfortunately, didn't possess.
The ender’s is more subtle
and often overlooked.
No one wants an end,
unless it is the only option
and, for us,
there is no doubt
it was
the only option.
To end well takes
courage and a sense of self.
For me, it was important to
end well.
In spite of many, many experiences
as the endee,
this time,
I was the ender
and my experience
was anything but pleasurable;
loss,
deep sadness,
more loss,
and solitude,
all by choice.
This ender also chose kindness,
whenever possible
in spite of this specific endee’s
fictional account to the contrary.
Generosity,
in the face
of punitive
retribution.
Kindness,
when confronted
with injured cruelty.
Going high,
when the endee
went low,
oh so low.
Words and actions
intended to hurt,
from perceived injury.
An affair considered
in the midst
of struggling to build
our happily ever after.
Stripping away
tokens of love
now viewed as
a financial asset,
because you knew it mattered
to me.
Rubbing flawed anesthesia
in my face,
entirely unnecessary and
intended to cause harm.
…and it did
for a moment.
After the tears,
I saw it for what it was;
yet another act of
manipulation
in a long series of acts
which left me no choice,
but to chew off my leg
and end us.
I’ll admit,
when met with a barrage
of immature and cruel
intentions, I bit
several times, in fact.
I could rationalize
showing my teeth was deserved
warranted,
earned,
but I apologized,
ceased,
desisted,
and created distance
yet again
to shelter my soul
from the toxicity of you.
By and large, though
I chose kindness
and in taking
the road less traveled
it has made all the difference
for me.
