Anger

I came in early from the fire humming from the powder

There she was in front of you, the object of your obvious desire

In my stomach I felt the dull kick of rejection

In my ears the roaring of the shame

And you said it’s my fault, that I didn’t talk enough

As you kept on barking out her name

You would get grippy, when you were steaming, grabbing ever louder

And she leant into your gaze, you never gave me nothing to assure me

The contempt that you had, barely obfuscated

Grew the longer I stayed at your heel

A dog obeys its master, thriving in mistreatment

Prostrate and pathetic and unreal

When I was younger I mapped this city all throughout my body

Open and ready for someone like you to come destroy me

What you took I gave you, I hated myself too

My thirst relentless in my misery

You never looked at me, never really saw me

So I kept safe where I wanted to be