Listen.

Listen to me, you say

yell

snap

listen listen listen

why don't you 

listen?

Words pack a punch

one-two

bam pow SLAM,

K.O!

Hurl them, sling them out:

"I know you"

you don't know

shit.

Lazy, selfish?

All you see,

eyes wide shut while you're looking

right

at me.

Don't love us

don't care

don't listen

(are you even listening to me?)

Hear me!

I'm fucking screaming

lump in my throat

tears choking, stinging my eyes

sear my skin, sizzle steam

evaporate when they hit my face,

rage-red, iron stove

fire hot

all you see is smoke.

To know me

is to listen

yet

you take my words

Pluck them from the air

heavy fruit, ripe and rotting

fresh from my mouth

frankenstein them

mash pound smash them

so they fit

your version of me.

She's in your head!

Take her out,

side by side, hold her up to me

compare.

Flesh, corporeal

to idealization, flawless, fatal

we are not the same.

I speak

her lips move

listen

who do you hear?

"I know you"

What's my favorite color?

friends' names, twisted, mixed not matched

deepest fears?

What's that, crawling

clawing, seething

from the depths of the me that is me

can you hear it?

That's me.

You

don't

know

shit.

I am.

You are not.

Hear what you want

(listen)

sentences silver, slicing

back to bite me.

Want to know why?

I'm talking

(screaming)

can't you hear me?

Can't you just

listen?