I’m not yr punching bag
Not yr piñata
So give me a break
what is it you are after
I’m not yr pincushion
Not yr whipping boy
so why are you so intent
on stifling my joy
Yr not my parole officer
you are not my judge
so don’t cross examine me
& please don’t call this love.
John Malone 
Loved this phrasing… “so why are you so intent on stifling my joy”
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thank you: it is good to get a comment ; I’m glad you liked it: I worked hard to arrive at ‘stifling’
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I read this as describing a physically abusive relationship…
No idea if that was your intention, but it is brilliant all the same 🖤
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thank you; it was all welling up inside me, and I just slammed it down as the lines came, with no thought of intention so it’s pretty raw
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Excellent work John, raw is what it is, and raw are the feelings that come along in these situations. And it happens far more often than many people realise …
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thanks Carolyn: the trick is, I feel, to retain that rawness at the same time as containing it: you can’t have the rawness spilling over — it becomes a rant rather than an artistic product, don’t you think?
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Yes, presenting the damage, without telling the reader how they must react. The ‘you’ in the poem isn’t the reader, it is the offender, leaving the reader to look at the situation as an observer. It’s an interesting subject, trying to imagine what your readers are thinking, and hoping you, as the writer, is aiming at presenting.
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it is tricky, Carolyn but I guess, as the saying goes, you ‘go with your gut’ 🙂 that usually works
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This strikes a chord! The pangs of being the scapegoat.
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ahh yes; well,at least we got a few good poems out of it 🙂
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