i ask for so little...

...only to be accepted...

...as I am.

Growing up with the incessant voices
that never approve
that never honor
or support
or encourage

but only belittle
and deride
and bring you down

is like an acid eroding the soul
endless pain
from which there is no escape.

And sometimes they do it so cruelly, so callously, with hardly a thought

Habit, it must be -
this utterly insensitive, habitual pain-making, or what they call
dis-function.

Yeah, well, I'm dysfunctional, all right -

This machine don't work right, at all.

Only I ain't a machine.

So there ya go.