i used to look at
incredible women
beautiful women
witty, intelligent, powerful women
and ask them why they were still single
how they were still single
as if the one thing prohibiting them
from achieving perfection
was a man to validate
their beauty, wit, intelligence, and power

i would like to apologize
to every single one of those women
for asking such an ignorant question

and i would like to thank them
for inspiring me to keep my standards
as high as theirs