Forget the bad people.
You’ll be tempted to keep thinking of them,
to keep allowing their subtle influence
to infiltrate your thoughts.
But you must not.
Keep these enemies in the past where they belong.
Don’t glance too long in the rearview mirror.
Because the more you look upon them,
the more you keep them alive in your heart.
Forget the bad people.
The ones who made you think it was all your fault.
The antagonists.
The opportunists.
The abusers.
The false teachers.
The treacherous saviors.
The dream killers.
It might feel like magic to walk away
and make them go poof, but your life matters more
than the wicked imprint they left on you.
These people aren’t immune to deletion.
Matter might not be created or destroyed,
but you can eliminate the idea of them.
So do it.
Exert your power, every day.
Erase them from your mind.
Garbage Notes:
I was just talking to someone very close to me about false friends—people who should have your best interest at heart, but instead they try mostly to keep you down. Good people in our lives are supposed to want the best for us. They aren’t competitive or discouraging. They don’t constantly make you feel like shit.
This poem brought to mind all the shitty people I’ve encountered in my life. Whether it was bad role models or crappy coworkers or negative collaborators, or whatever—the thing they all sadly have in common is that they tend to stick with you. They linger… in your mind. And we can’t let that happen.
The goal of this piece was to be mindful of the ways in which negative people might still influence our actions, even after they’ve exited our lives. We should instead make the deliberate choice to eliminate them from consciousness. I like the line, “the more you look upon them, the more you keep them alive in your heart.” So screw them. Don’t even conjure up their image. Let them fade away…
I also like the bit that says, “no one is immune to deletion.” Especially in this digital world, it can be difficult as hell to disconnect from certain creatures of the past. It’s like the traces of their presence are always there, somewhere on the internet, in the electronic landscape of life. But you can get past that bullshit too if you make a concerted effort.
You have more will power than you think. So don’t dwell on those sharks. Fuck ’em. Forget about it—forget the bad people!
Franco Amati 2023
Wise words, Franco. They do liner in our minds and I agree that it's not good. The next great step to truly being free of the bad affects they've left on us, is to forgive them.
Those shitty people can piss off. Leave room for the good ones. Excellent poem, mate.