Substance.

My entire life,

my parents never showed affection

to one another.

If any bit of love existed,

they never expressed it.

It wasn't until later,

that their blatant dislike for one another

became much more

frequent and apparent;

and eventually,

unmanageable.

Stumbling upon a courthouse record of my parents’ marriage license,

appeared to be rare evidence, proving that they had once

loved each other.

This

ultimately,

was the synthetic decision that,

became the reason of

my existence.