This poem was originally published in Poetrynation.com and the anthology Upon Arrival.
Why do you kiss the ground I walk upon?
Why make yourself a low and cheap disaster
Because you look up to me?
Why do you blindly follow me like God
When I am nothing more than flesh and blood
That’s crippled with anxiety?
Why do you fail to see my failures?
My punishments? My insecurities?
You see me as a martyr!
I strut and fret my hour upon the stage,
And then I’m heard no more. Applaud for me
Because you do not know me.
You do not know the times that I have cried,
You do not see the tears that I may shed
At night when I am sleeping.
I’m only one, a lonesome soul alone,
Just yearning for a way to fill this hole
Inside my heart that’s beating.
And yet you think that I have many friends
That seem to kiss the ground on which I stand,
Obeying my commandments.
(c) 2016