You made me feel a million dollars,
you smiled at me through some dark times.
But the lesson for me to learn was that respect
for me is not your responsibility but mine.

Perhaps my outburst was unexpected,
you feel you have a right to be aggrieved.
But understand, I had to make you despise me
to gain the strength to leave.

You outdo excellence,
your reach touches everyone
and with my response running so achingly deep
just the memory is undoing to keep.

Lives continue to unfurl,
sometimes without will.
The good, the bad and the ugly,
raw emotion remains the bitterest pill.