Maybe If You Loved Yourself Poem by Jamie Loughlin

I am willing to
compromise, I swear.
This relationship
cannot be flat
unchanging
static
like it is now.

Truth be told
I want to forgive
so that I
no longer have to care
about the things
you have said.
The things
you have done.
The way
you have changed
me.

I wish you had never
been the person you are
in my life.
I wish I had
never been
the person I was
in your life.
I wish I could simply
fade away,
my conscious gone,
and cease to be
the child that reminds you
of that person you fight
day long
and into the night.

You are not who you
appear to be.
I see that now.
You are, however,
everything that you
say I am.
Maybe if you loved yourself
you would be able
to love me.