Your condemnation
of hands around my throat,
swept my consciousness underneath your pillow
and let my body drift arount your word.

On more than one occasion,
I was excited by the attention you gave my worth
and let my achievement dance around your tongue,
my belonging hung off of every word you offered.

Hands behind your back,
you choked the ambition from my throat
and pulled me closer with every tongue that uttered the four syllables of my name,
until they forgot how to fit me into a sentence.

Twice I frayed the knot you tied around my neck and down my back,
and at my strongest, you recalled the crease in my side that made me double over in laughter until it hurt,
and it hurt.

For the best part of what I thought to be my best days,
you forced my head to stay above the water so that you could balance on my shoulders,
and see your world from a pedastal,
while I drowned, and saw it as my only support.