Better Life, Crooked Frame

I had a picture.

Nice one,

too. Everything where it belonged.

Reality apparently didnt get a copy.

House looked different. Job wasnt that.

Money came slower. Love didnt last.

Friends moved away. Plans changed names.

Half the people in the picture never entered the frame.

I kept holding up the future next to what I actually found,

Saying—

No, no, no... This isnt how it was supposed to look.

Nothing looked like the picture.

Nothing landed where I drew.

Wrong colors. Wrong people.

Wrong fucking point of view.

I spent years moving everything

trying to make the edges line— Till I finally asked myself: Who

said the picture had to be

right?

Picture never had bad Tuesdays.

Never showed the bills.

Never showed two people wondering if they even loved each other still.

Didnt show the boring middle.

Didnt show the years between.

Funny how imagined futures come professionally cleaned.

No stains. No awkward silence.

Nobody changing their mind.

Reality looked terrible next to something I designed.

Nothing looked like the picture.

Maybe nothing ever could.

Real life kept getting fingerprints all over something good.

Then one afternoon I stopped trying to straighten everything out.

Nothing looked like the picture— MAYBE THATS WHY I FINALLY LOOKED AROUND.

And there it was.

Not the house.

Not the job. Not the person.

Not the plan. Just— my actual fucking life.

Huh. Look at that.

Some parts were crooked.

Some were gone. Some showed up where they didnt belong.

Somebody laughed outside the frame.

Something beautiful blocked the shot.

Things I wouldve edited away— became the parts I liked a lot.

And that perfect little future?

Still looks good inside my head.

But pictures dont breathe.

Pictures dont change. Pictures dont surprise you instead.

Nothing looked like the picture.

Thank God it didnt now.

I wouldve spent my whole damn life trying not to color outside.

Wrong road. Wrong frame.

Wrong people hanging around.

Nothing looked like the picture— MAYBE THATS WHY I FINALLY LOOKED AROUND.

No frame. No pose.

No perfect angle. Better picture.

Nah.

Better life.