Sometimes I wonder what happened to you,
What changed you.
Was it sudden, or was I just blind to the truth?
You knew I hated to acknowledge it,
I never acted on it.
Never let it get to my head,
Never crowned myself in medals.
Never thought our friendship was unworthy of me.
Yet as I gained my accomplishments
I unknowingly fueled your envy-filled fire,
the ire that you could never rid of.
So you dragged me down in a futile attempt to somehow, anyhow,
use my pain to piece together a fractured stairway to success.
Didn’t give me time to brush the dirt off my knees
as you thundered forward on the path I had made.
You manipulated the blankness of my mind, the hollowness in my bones
Planted the feeling of utter dread and helplessness and waited for it to take root.
Its vines slowly growing and twisting deep inside me, paralyzing me
So you could take everything.
I was unaware of your true self,
My naïveté allowed for you to pull a veil over my eyes.
You used my blood as ink,
Presented a mural of sentiments and emotions that were not yours,
Were given trophies and awards for my work
Because you called it your own.
Stood on your pedestal of false valour and success
while you left me behind.
Basked in their praises on your throne of lies.
Oh, how I wished you would die.
That maybe someone would stab you in the back
while you flounced and paraded among the people
adorned in an intricate deceitful guise.
A dagger of irony twisting deeper into you as you fell to your knees.
How long will you keep this facade?
What will you do when they begin to demand more and more and more?
When you’ll find yourself cornered, struggling,
nothing to sate their needs.
What will you do when you realize that you can no longer feed off of me?
Take my creations and present them as your own?
What will you do when you are forced to acknowledge that
I am behind all that you have?
We made our beds.
Yet while I lay in mine,
you would die in yours.
Photo: Jeswin Thomas on pexels.com
