Baby Took Me Down

Left one foot hangin’ mid-air
I was once adventurous
But baby took me down
A peg or two
Daylight breaks and I’m starting to look like you
The way all the old couples do
in sepia tone photographs
Baby took me down to see his body in the light
Hair and fissures
Whatever it is that I take in my mouth
Like a foreign language
A foreign object
Did you grow to feel something bitter for me, darling?
Did you grow like all men do to find comfort in my arms
But fear in your heart…a death rattle that begins with just a simple tap of the foot
You wanted to be anywhere but here with me
If the house was folding in…I didn’t know it
But you said you couldn’t breathe
And baby I’m scared too
The way it feels so good sometimes
So you sit waiting with a lump in your throat
For the other shoe to drop
I am dressed up in knee-high boots and I have a voice
That tears the hair off your neck
I am testing the boundaries of your heart
If I must be a recluse
Keep me in the home of your heart
I thought I heard you crying
But it was me
The child that lives in my chest
That sulks and beats its fists against my ribcage
And sometimes I feel it too, baby
When you take me down.