“Eighteen Years Later” Free-Verse Poetry, 9-23-17 My inability to hate you Is the biggest detriment in my adult life. I was young and inexperienced, Putty in your hands, Moldable and folding myself over and over again Until there was almost nothing left. I want to sever the insatiable connection to you, Because it still hurts that you didn’t feel it too. Losing you damn near killed me. I thought I knew what love was, But you said I didn’t. You were wrong; I knew everything. -Brandi Easterling Collins