Over a
Chinese
meal that
I paid for,
she told me
what she
honestly
thought of
me

she used words
like
intellectually challenged
and
emotionally immature

but she said
she meant it
in a good way

she went on,
using more words
like
arrested development
and
juvenile

bitter and
misogynist and
infantile

again,
she said she
meant it in
a good way

could be
worse,
I thought

I could be
emotionally vacant
and as cold
as the
deep arctic
in winter

I could be as
friendly as a
starved
forest badger that
just chewed his own
leg off to escape from
one of those
oversized
bear
traps

I could be
sour and
unpleasant and
nasty and
cruel and
nuttier than a
gallon of
Ben & Jerry's
Chunky Monkey
Ice Cream
with all the
warmth and
compassion of
a
tapeworm

like SHE
was

But I mean
that
in a good
way