Unsympathetic Tenant

 

He taunts me

First with a twitch

Then a subtle tug

At what I think

Are my intestines

And from within he rumbles

Convulsing in laughter

Jeering, mocking ...

Hurting my pride

 

I squeeze my face

Casting embarrassed glances

Like Judas at the last supper

Again, my tormentor racks

I grind my teeth

Like a goat on a stake

'Men don't cry'

I tell myself

'Men don't cry'

And a tear drops

 

This my tormentor-

Unsympathetic bully

Blurs the sight

And makes the ear hear

Sounds so sadly strange

He mocks the nostrils

Tickling them with the aroma

Of imaginary delicacy

And causes a pang-

Pain in the abdomen

 

I cringe

And he laughs

Hunger laughs

Weirdly, at me

My feeble bravado

My vulnerable humanity

He laughs at me- 'LANDLORD"