YOU DON’T OWN ME
by Black_Aphrodite
Hello, it’s me…
The only one you care to call
Day or night, I’m always here…
Why have you let my availability
Make you think to devise a cage for me?
I was here and here I remain…
Just because I might let you inside
Just because I love you
Just because you are important
Just because…
A million reasons to keep you near…
But you assume too much
I feel hunted and haunted
Pursued, afraid, trapped by your desire
You push so hard, too much
You say this is love
But your love doesn’t love me
It takes my breath away
It strangles me with your expectations
You’ve changed overnight…
Your eyes follow me, stalk me as if
I am your prey
The color shifts in your eyes
I can feel you becoming darker
You press, you push, you pull me
Into the dark, swirling pools
I can’t swim, I can’t breathe
You’re smothering me
You don’t own me
I barely own myself
Why must you make us ugly?
Why do you need me to be in bondage
For you to trust me?
Is your love so pure?
Are your motives so noble?
Why don’t you trust me?
Why do you have to build a wall around ME
To keep YOUR heart safe?
You don’t love me
You kill me
My heart races, I can smell my fear
The pulse in my neck, my breath quickening
As I search for a place to hide
From your questions
Your interrogation
You don’t have the right to know where I’ve been
You think that money can buy me
You give me presents, but I know what they are
Bait for your trap,
So that I can be enclosed
Falling victim to the glitter
How do you think I feel?
Do you care?
Are you utterly unaware?
I taste the salt in my tears,
I hurt, I mourn for the love
For you, that you slowly murder
How can I be true?
When you won’t let me be me?
How can you love me
if you want me to be someone else?
You say that you want to be my lover
But you act as a father, a judge, a jailor
Your voice no longer calls to my heart
It pierces my thoughts
I have to find excuses for everything
You say there’s no reason to fear love’s pressure
But I see the core of you
You would force me
You speak of family
Love, commitment
Why do those words upon your lips
Sound like a prison sentence?
You won’t slow down
You plough straight ahead
Over my objections
You’re beyond reason
You love my look, my smile, my ways
But you say you love me
So I’m supposed to obey you
Be with you, stay, don’t go
Just because you say so?
You don’t own me
When I offered you my love freely
You sought to put a price tag on it
Because you thought you could buy me
Did you actually believe you could exchange a price tag
For a dog tag?
Do you not know me?
Were you just kidding yourself?
Because you weren’t fooling me
Did you not know that I would rebel
Run, hide, disappear?
Did you think I would have nowhere to go?
You assume, you disrespect me, you try to compromise
To convince me that all is well
To make me yield to your whims
But I’m so brittle, I might break
I keep telling you that I can’t do this
I can’t be torn apart by you anymore
If you were anyone else, I’d already be gone
But that’s not enough for you
Everything is us, we, two
Whatever happened to just me and you?
You don’t own me