I loved you, in spite of you

I loved you, in spite of you.
I loved every aspect of your being.
I became fixated on the very curves that made you grumble with resentment.
I craved hearing the laugh you had such disdain for.
I wanted you to see the love I had.
I wanted you to look into my eyes and absorb the adoration that was contained within their murky depths.
I wished and hoped that you would see, and finally understand all that glowed from you.
I thought that if I tried hard enough. If I said it enough. If I showed you enough...
I thought that I would be enough.
I thought that I could erase the years of self-doubt that you had become accustomed to.
I thought I could show you all the best parts of you.
I had the hope that, like pieces of a broken vase I would be able to glue the pieces back into one.
That in spite of the crevices that may show, you would be whole again.
But it wasn't enough.
Your shattered corners crumbled in, and your once shaky foundation completely came undone.
What remained were pieces I could not find matches for.
What was left for me was mere dust.
Mere shards of what once was.
I could not find pieces within the dust.
It was then that I knew that what was done, was final.
That all that was left for me, were a million little memories.
I scooped up the fine glass, the glimmers of sand, of what remained of the past. I let the particles sift through my now shaky hands.
The particles of what was.
What could have been.