Awakenings
You move in peculiar motions
and I follow you.
Are you the king of my dreams
or the great pretender?
You have stolen so much of me.
I feel like the eye of my soul
needs to filter out the bad.
What have you given me
that I would want to keep?
Do I stay just to strip the meat
off the bones you throw?
I can no longer see the wood
for the trees or the dog for the fleas.
Did I agree to you taking
the most precious parts of me
or did you wait until I wasn’t looking?
I know you are a thief, so does that
make me complicit?
Will I be party to my own
death when there’s nothing left?

**************************

You follow me because I attached
your shadow to mine.
There’s no pretence in my kingship.
It just is.
Of course I steal. Relentlessly,
effortlessly because the first things I stole
were your locks and keys.
I made it easy for you
to make it easy for me.
Your independence, intelligence,
confidence and popularity
are my costumes, neatly layered
on hangers in my closet,
to wear whenever
I wish, for as long as I need.
The bones I threw were delicious,
were they not?
More succulent than you have
ever known or will ever know.
When it is done, the shell of you
will wonder where you went.
Emptiness will fill you up
but still you’ll be looking for scraps.