Sigmund Gilbert

TEMU Version

 

You didn’t trade up.

You traded down—

clearance rack man with an expiration date,

the TEMU version of me in a flimsy package.

 

No backbone, no flame,

just a boy wearing confidence like a borrowed jacket.

You ran from a furnace

to play with matches in a sandbox.

 

Cowardice, served cold.

That’s what it was—

Not growth, not clarity,

just another immature bitch move dressed in “self-love.”

 

Have fun playing house with soft hands

and a soft spine.

Enjoy year two—right before

you ghost him like you ghosted me.

 

Because that’s your cycle,

isn’t it?

 

New man, same void.

New bed, same ache.

 

I was the real thing—

you couldn’t carry the weight,

so you found someone who couldn’t carry you.

 

Good riddance

to the storm I stopped blaming myself for.

 

You didn’t just lose a man.

You lost the kingdom he was building.

 

So stay in your fantasy,

with your soft substitute and quiet lies.

You weren’t woman enough for a king—

so now you bow beside a boy

and call it peace.