Turn off the lights
because it’s ugly
looking at you this way

where anger trumps everything
it is so a situational, life that is
a chemical reaction to a set of dynamics:
where opposites collide and nobody is listening

it is seen through the regretted mess
broken bright bulbs
pieces of the argument that made sense.

Yes we have failed so gloriously
if only we can talk to each other without weaponry
then those words of I love you wouldn’t be so conditional.

It is in those ways we are like our own parents
when it gets heated at least
they say things that we’re not suppose to repeat
the words we overheard them express to each other
in those unkind ways, that they know hurts the most
remaining with us like remnants waiting to be discovered in ourselves
any day now, we unconsciously say them to each other.

Turn off the lights, I say
because it’s ugly
looking at you this way.