There is a particular skill
in watching responsibility
change shape mid-conversation.

It begins as a fact.

Then becomes confusion.
Then becomes your tone.
Then becomes your reaction.
Then becomes something
you must apologize for.

You stand there
holding the original moment
like a photograph
no one else will look at.

Meanwhile the story mutates
with surgical precision.

The past rewritten
until the damage
no longer belongs to him.

It is astonishing to witness
how far a person will travel
to avoid the simple gravity
of the words:

I did this.

Some people would rather
bend the entire universe
out of alignment
than admit
their behavior
caused the damage.