Instead of knocking you barge in.
Disturbing me from a natural place I like to call life.
Abruptly making your place at home on the couch in my veins.

You decide to stay for a while when you know I have work to finish, yet you don’t seem to mind my discomfort.
The rash on my neck gives you pleasure.

Your trash collects on my floor cornering me against the wall.
You smack at the potato chips in your mouth, and run the salt from your fingers onto my skin making me sweat.

You are suffocating me, trapping me in a bubble.
So I gasp for air.
The hand that is wrapped around my throat doesn’t help my lungs welcome oxygen.
Panic is flashing through my eyes because it seems with each fragmented breathe nothing is getting down to cuddle my lungs.
Not even my tears.

People are around wondering what is going on.
Their eyebrows are creased, but they all keep walking, leaving me with you.

How could they leave me here with a monster?
Is it because you hide in my closet until it is time to come out to torture me?

Suddenly…
You let go.
You get up from the couch.
Cleaning the floor as you leave.
Crawling back into the closet.
I can breathe again.
The world is my clarity again, with you peeking out from the closet.