The Insidious Legacy Of Control

Ripples scatter your reflection
into a thousand shifting faces.

Desires spill into an ocean,
its currents all shouting
in different voices,
none of them yours,
but all of them
convincing.

Tightening spirals
drag you into deeper water,
pull you under,
spinning, spinning

and you learn to doubt
the compass in your chest,
because it was held too long

in someone else’s hands.