Winning The Argument

Screenshots. Saved and sorted.

I'd named it. That's the part.

Somebody in this relationship

had been collecting evidence.

And I walked you through the timeline

like a barrister, slow and kind,

and you got smaller where you sat,

and God help me, it felt great.

There's a moment in a fight

where you can feel the winning start —

And I won the argument. (won the argument)

Won it comprehensively.

Every point conceded,

not one fact against me.

I won the argument. (won the argument)

And the flat went very quiet,

and there was nothing left to hold.

You weren't asking to be right.

You were asking to be met.

You said "I felt alone at your mum's"

and I heard "here is a claim."

Two completely different conversations

happening in one small hallway,

and I was brilliant in mine,

and you were on your own in yours.

Scoreboard says I'm flawless.

Hallway light. Half eleven —

I won the argument. (won the argument)

I have won a lot of arguments.

There's a shelf of them behind me

and the shelf is very cold.

I won the argument. (won the argument)

And the winning is a receipt

for something I can't return.

Say it plainly. Say it ugly.

I wanted to be right more than I wanted you comfortable.

That's the sentence. That's all it is.

I won the argument. (won the argument)

Final score, then, for the record:

me, one. Us, nothing.

Every time. Every single time.

So next round, when the winning starts,

I'm deleting every screenshot

and asking what you needed

before I made it evidence.