Took me a second to parse it, tbh

That's because it should really have some quotes around half of the words in there.

Before "was" was "was," "was" was "is."

honestly i only had to read the first half once to realize what it was doing and then was able to read the whole sentence perfectly fine

but yeah the quotes would help it parse easier

Could read it as it's meant immediately, and english isn't my mother tongue.