Maybe it’s judgemental to think we know what someone else’s ‘best self’ should look like, but when someone seems to go out of their way to be rude or disrespectful, I can’t help but wonder why they choose that instead of choosing to be better…

Who are you

To look at me like that?

Why speak with such

Derision?

What exactly did you hear

When I asked you for

The time of day?

Why did your

Best self

Stay silent?

Your words barrel out

In a rush of meaningless expletives and

Protestations

And I don’t know how you manage

To fill such

Nothingness

With so much vitriol.

It’s poison,

You know,

And it will corrode your very self

Before it touches me.

Why is it that you don’t believe

In the version of you

Who brings

Good

Into the world?

I see it.

That light you’re hiding

Under bitter spite

And stubborn

Denial.

If only you’d let it out,

You could

Shine

So much louder

Than you can shout.