Don’t underestimate me.

I’ll expand your eyes to the size of this solar system, keep them expanding.

Reprimanding you incessantly for the blunders you did not make.

For mistakes that weren’t mistakes but I’ll say they were until you break.

I am the nagging in your ears, these jagged nails scraping against a chalkboard.

And when you’re bored, prick you like the loose wire in your bra.

Be the clenching in your jaw.

 

I am red but I’ll make you the blue of our polluted sky

Be the cause of every raindrop in your tired eye

I’m not a woman nor am I guy

but I’ll try

and affect you more than a person ever could

Chastise you more than a person ever should

Snap you like the brittle wood of an uneven floorboard

 

In public, I’ll be the Janis Joplin in your throat

Make you the boat

seesawing on angry water and broken waves

Stay here, like the itch in your back, for days

 

Because. Well, I don’t mean any harm

Don’t mean to diminish your charm

Until you’re practically a wadded up piece of gum

Chewed up and spit out

And your voice is no longer able to shout

Into the dark

Into this black hole, where I’ve hidden your confidence and spark.

 

I don’t mean to get in your head.

Don’t want to be an enemy, a frenemy or your foe.

I’m sorry. It’s just that…I have no place else to go.