Is This Love? Poem by fawzia zie

How can you say it's love?

Then treat me like this?
Am I just a toy, an object, a stone…?
Just to see when I'll break.

Is this how you define affection?
Am I supposed to believe that you care?
Cut me from the outside in, like an infection.
Then kiss me and pretend everything's been repaired.

When did this other you form?
I look at you and see both a man gentle and kind

You make me cringe then wonder why I cry?

I can't stand here and let you do this to me.
As you yell angrily with a look in your eyes like you want to kill
And I'm flinching like some pathetic puppy;

Bittersweet you leave me

Your angry words still echo in this brain
You're back to your old self, ready to pretend
It was someone else entirely who caused me that pain

I want nothing more than to be sleeping in your arms tonight;
To lay my head down and feel reassured.
You say that love is responsibility and sacrifice
But there's no excuse for the hurt I've endured.

Why is it so hard to remain the man I know you can be?
Let all that contempt drain from your face
I just want to believe so bad that you love me
And to melt securely into your embrace.