Always attached to me
A presence I can never escape-
You are my shadow.
They call you harmless
But they don't see what you hold:
The pain of presence
The rage of living
The suffering I don't know how to carry.
I feed you
Not because I want to-
But because I can't hold it all inside me
And everytime I do
You grow stronger
I just needed to smile
To keep moving forward
To be alright
But you always followed
Walking beside me
Laughing where I cannot
Taunting what I try to hide
I feared you
Because you always saw everything I couldn't face-
And I knew you would never forget it
So I kept feeding you
Kept you queit
Kept you close enough to control
But you were never still
Always growing
Patiently waiting
Relentlessly hungry to become something I couldn't contain
In the light you shift-
Dancing around me, changing shape
Mocking the version of me I show the world
But in the dark, you change
You grow heavier
Louder
You consume the night
And then something breaks
The weight is lifted
The bond is gone
Or maybe it was never there
You are free
I feel you everywhere now-
Not beside me
Not following me
But inside everything I am
Your eyes burn through me
I hear you laughing when I sleep
Waiting
Always waiting
I try to believe what other say-
That you are just my shadow
But I know better
You are me
