Close Your Mouth When You Chew

would you really want to know

the truth about the words I never speak

the things I’ve never told a soul

the me that no one’s ever seen

I don’t tell you what I’m feeling

or the distain I have for me

because that kind of thing would send you reeling

exposing my human, incomplete

you’d see the scared, weak, fragile mind

that holds our universe together

is a fraying rope, unwinding

leaving us dangling, under pressure

I fear that if you looked inside

my best would only let you down

and so, to self protect my pride

I insist to do it all alone

trusting it to someone else

requires more than I can give

so, I hold it all contained

in a heart built like a sieve

I keep you an arms length away

by pointing out the little flaws

to keep my secrets safe

I stir the quiet just because

it keeps you putting out small fires

hoping you never smell the smoke

a sacrificial burning pyre

covered with sarcastic, harmless jokes