I fell in love with the institution

so I married the institution. The institution wouldn’t sleep in bed with me, would only fuck me in the wrong way. When I ate ham & eggs I ate alone. When I brought the institution its favorite black coffee, the institution would set it on the side table & mumble a slight that’s nice, thank you. In glimpses of joy I would remind the institution of its wedding dress & the institution would say it actually hated all that lace, the white washed out its opaque face. After dinners the institution let me scrub all the dishes & before sleeps I brushed its hair. I missed what the institution & I once shared. I remembered playing marriage on swingsets & dreaming of the institution. I remembered kissing the institution in my beat-up car under spreads of stars & the institution loving me back. I tried to pinpoint when that love went bad. It was the moment I told the institution I’d give it all I had & it was all I’d ever want. It was the moment I thought I was enough.