If this was love, hating me would have been a kindness.

You Are Not the Man I Loved is a confessional free verse poetry collection about what happens when love is built on illusion and shattered by truth.

Through a raw and nonlinear emotional arc, these poems trace the aftermath of intimate betrayal: the confusion of loving someone who never truly existed, the grief of losing both the person and the future you believed in, and the slow, unflinching process of reclaiming yourself.

Structured through the emotional landscape of grief, this collection moves through denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance - not as stages, but as overlapping states that shape the reality of heartbreak and healing.

Blending sharp imagery with emotional precision, this collection captures the disorientation of betrayal and the strength it takes to survive it.

For readers who have loved deeply, lost painfully, and had to remake themselves in the aftermath.