As he listened to his daughter
rant
about what a terrible father
he had been while she
was growing up,
he couldn’t help
but recognize the same words and complaints
that his new love had claimed
about her ex-husband.

It made him sick,
and it made him run.
He didn’t think he
was that terrible person, but maybe he was,
and he had just never seen it.

Everybody else had,
but he couldn’t.
And isn’t that
the narcissistic
way?