Ignorance Is Bliss & Love Is Blind

Once upon a time I

loved you.

And you were amazing;

goofy, happy, relaxed.

You barely ever talked

but you always had a smile on your face.

When you did speak it was with this crazy goofy voice

The sound of happiness

It radiated from you

Brighter than the sun radiated light.

I got into you but I had

no idea what I was getting into

Because behind that smile and those eyes

there was a monster.

It took so long for me to see it.

And I hate myself for it.

For letting myself get so into you.

I was blinded by lust and what I thought was love.

I shouldn't have been surprised when you get arrested.

It shouldn't have been shocking when I heard you were in

a juvenile prison.

Reality was starting to kick my fantasy

in the a*s.

And I was trying to block it

Because ignorance is bliss and

love is blind

But you can only block so much.

Those six months you were locked up shouldn't have been

so painful for me

I waited for your release day by day.

I let loose tears of happiness and relief when you

came home.

But you had changed.

You weren't that goofy, happy radiating guy

I thought I knew

The monster had been let loose and

there was no blocking it

No hiding it

No pretending you were anything but what you were.

And it kills me to this day;

its killing you, too, but you won't see it til it hits you head on.

And I guess that's what we're all waiting for now.

Author's Note

This is a true story. It still hurts me to see what he's become. The cover image is him

Reviews

[Robert Tusitala O'Neill]

I'm so sorry to hear you had this experience! I know so many people who have had to find out the hard way their loved one is a monster. I have two good friends whose experiences are quite the same as yours in their last several year long relationships. I wish in the name of all that is good that there was a way to avoid this kind of surprise. Wouldn't it be nice if there was some kind of warning label? In the first line of the fifth stanza I would change "get" to "got." Just to have a balanced perspective and to heighten the feelings of the audience, I would say WHY you lusted after him...a little show of your humanity. It would strengthen the poem, showing your reason for being drawn in. That could go between the fourth and fifth stanzas. I think this is very well put together, but to make it really be more powerful I would throw in some additional images and metaphors. For example, when you say in the second to last line, "...you won't see it 'til it hits you head on," I might add a simile: "like a freight train," or something like that. "That light at the end of the tunnel is a freight train bearing down on you!" That kind of thing makes poems really fun. You could also change the word "monster" into something more descriptive, like "dragon," or "demon" or a variety of other things. The more you come up with deep images to weave together, the more layers you can add. I also find that for myself it helps me to write about painful things with really specific detail, because I weed out all the other images that don't work. All this is just suggestion, but I hope it can be useful to you!

[Jack...]

Riveting...this piece is so very sad and seems like a warning label for blind love.

Very cool.

[Listmaker]

Wow, so powerful, so honest. I'm sorry that it turned out as it did but so happy you saw the monster before it was too late. The phrase "the monster had been let loose" is haunting. Very good piece.

[Shaquana Adams]

"It took so long for me to see it.
And I hate myself for it."

*Claps Hands Slowly*

Very well written poem! Bravo!

[Azalea Belle]

Thank you! That means so much :)