Woman, you're responsible for my plight

I carry a bag on my back

stuffed with things I can’t shed

-rebuke

-ridicule

-criticism

-humiliation

for thoughts considered improper

to keep me from being waylaid

it’s my darkest shadow

it stays both in the night

and daylight

I need to deride

thoughts in the bag

to see myself

in bright light

Woman, you’re responsible for my plight

neither can I live with you

nor without….

lines of control divide

-woebegone to the one

who’s on the wrong side

I feel the sting on my cheeks

eyes watering, throat gagged

if you could read my thoughts

and the way I brag

-so I demonize you

to keep curiosity

away from the bag

it gives me a breather

-to plan escapades

-to design masks

-to let me masquerade

as a civilized being

-to keep up the structure

support the colonnade