(you'll only know what I choose to tell you.)

always in control but everybody

can see the wires, sparking & humming

so what secrets are there left to keep?

I scrape away at the paint,

bring it all up to the surface

and you think that's all there is to me

but it's not, it's not. it's not.

because maybe I wanted

you to know that I was angry,

used that saccharine smile

to get on your nerves.

I wanted them to know my wrath

without revealing it.

because itting it

would mean defeat. caring

is defeat. never love anything.

I wish I had taken it to heart.

I wish I hadn't. (another war.)

thoughts about the nature

of things, the teeth and claws

run through my mind.

beetles always slip in

through the cracks, their pincers

and their slippery gold skeletons.

every time I fall,

roll around in the dirt

is another act.

every slip is calculated.

you think you know me,

but you don't;

all you know is what I choose

to tell you. otherwise

I wouldn't have survived

this long.

you slip through the cracks

but all that's waiting

is a monster. another alleyway

with a knife that shines

like the moon.

I've prepared all my life for this

don't you dare think

I was ever actually weak

in the first place.

#august10prompt

image used is not my own

edit: thanks for the feature!!!