you were like a loud television in the next room,
disturbing my sleep night after night,
but i was always too tired
to just get up and shut you off.

i tried my best to piece together what i heard--
the dialogue was intriguing, at times beautiful.
but still there was the wall...
and from my side of it,
i could not see you for what you really were.
until one day, i did.

and i know now to never again settle
for an image incomplete of description,
a story short of resolution,
or for losing sleep--for eyes so tired, so heavy
they made the baggage you put on me seem light.

never again will i paint pretty pictures in my head
for a love that is so clearly artificial,
it exhausts my wonder for the truth.

exhausts it so covertly,
and with such careful manipulation,
that i mistake my weariness for weakness.
when all the dreams i lost,
all the dreams you stole, were of my strengths.