The Self-Defeating Prophecy

The Self-Defeating Prophecy

Expectations
And fears
Began
From the first.

He was afraid
Of abandonment.

She was afraid
Of rejection.

So,
His anxiousness
Signaled
Distress
Which she read
As rejection.

So,
She ran
With jackals,
Which triggered
His abandonment.

She couldn't
Respect
What appeared
To be weakness.

And he
Saw her avoidance
As having
Left already.

The whirlpool
Spiralled
Into a self-
Defeating
Prophecy.

He never
Rejected her.

She could
Never really
Leave him.

But he did.
And she did.

And that
Was the case
Of missing
In inaction,

A helpless
And hopeless
Triggered
Unhappiness.

He gave up.
She gave up.

And he accepted
The truth
Of it all.

And she made
Her lifelessness
In that reality.

Not rejected,
Not abandoned,
Just a house
That was homeless.

In the photographs
They took
Once a year,
They smiled.

And they
Never
Said
A word
About it.