My social media is barren
Of thought-provoking emotional words.
They’re kept under lock and key,
While the watchtower guard observes.
***
I’m trying to maintain social niceties.
We intertwined so well that we’re a knot.
An all-inclusive reminder of what not to do,
Because if we ask you, everything was for naught
***
My first-line of defense was my skin
And that you’ve already gotten under.
So I’ll don a pleasant demeanor
While like a radio, you play my blunders.
***
I don’t want your friendship custody battle,
Win them with your seniority or pride.
Let’s not subject our friends to the Tower of Babel
We don’t speak the same language; don’t make them pick a side.
***
What you’re engaged in, could be
Best described as friendly fire.
I’m the theme of your propaganda
Painting me cruel, churlish, a liar.
***
A fourth of the time we had has passed.
It’s hard to know that everyone knows
Precisely what you want them to.
It’s my worst memories you chose.
***
I am not the engineer of your destruction.
I did not commandeer the breaking of your dreams.
I was not the stitchmaster pulling at the seams.
Why can’t you see; our end was a two-sided function?
*****
Ashley Kirtman 