After you strangled my truth in the dark our conversations grew increasingly stark fear was the undertone of all my thoughts but I couldn’t acknowledge the security that I’d lost to keep the peace I hid behind my words but I couldn’t untwist the meaning you heard ripped too soon from my lips you’d fill in the blanks of truths you thought that I’d skipped somewhere in the open air what I said became an affair or maybe this time I disrespected your mother to live in silence was my only cover but then you’d complain that we didn't connect conveniently forgetting your hands around my neck and over time you worked your magic twisting our roles so that you were pragmatic your hands never touched me in the same violent way but you berated me for words that I did not say and fashioned my truths into a barbed wire noose which somehow portrayed you as the safety from which I could not stray