The Making of a Narcissist

beware those who ask for your story 

beware those who ask for your story and then say that you talk too much

beware those who ask for your story and then offer you their feedback

beware those who ask for your story and then offer you their feedback in order to disguise the perfect poltergeist of jealousy and resentment that moves their so so innocent fingers and tongues

beware those who ask for your story because they say that hearing will heal them

beware those who ask for your story because they say that telling will heal you 

beware those who ask for your story but will not come to visit you when you are sick

beware those who ask for your story and do not want to believe you

beware those who ask for your story because they skipped the classes they were entitled to

beware those who ask for your story because hearing becomes seeing their shivering shortcomings abandoned in the gunpowder dusk of drizzling empire

beware those who ask for your story because hearing and hatred pass through the same fuming canal unless the tax of hard earned love is collected by a dedicated accomplice who for years pursues transcendence beyond inherited prejudice 

beware those who ask for your story because you will be ambushed by the feral tribes that only went into hiding when the trumpet called liberty

beware those who ask for your story because hearing becomes hatred in the absence of an adequate welfare state

beware those who ask for your story because they will construct their hatred as a gallows upon which the facts of your life may be righteously and deservedly hung 

beware those who ask for your story to echo in the chambered halls of their communities 

beware those who ask for your story so that they can award you degrees from institutions to which you pay fees

beware those who ask for your story of the margins to which you have been pushed by the obvious and sweeping gestures of their condescension

beware those who ask for your story so that they can lift your marginality up to a raised bed of superpowerful fertility and then hustle drunkenly for a hedgewitchhunt as they gather to snort ketamine in a shallow darkness thriving at the centre of everything they have lost by pursuing your ancestors to the grave

beware those who ask for your story and refuse to relinquish the madness to which their ancestors turned for justification 

beware those who ask for your story while strangling their instincts in ruff and feather because they will mock and deride the honesty that weeps from your wounds 

beware those who ask for your story so that they can applaud

beware those who ask for your story then set throne on fire

beware those who ask for your story in a timely and organised fashion

beware those who ask for your story and set a time limit

beware those who ask for your story and interrupt as if you are netflix and they need a minute to roll a cigarette and explain the plot to their friend who has just walked in

beware those who ask for your story and interrupt you as if you are porn

beware those who ask for your story and interrupt you as if you are porn that is too sentimental

beware those who ask for your story and interrupt you as if you are porn that they have just realised is the live filming of an actual rape

beware those who ask for your story and interrupt you when you reveal your soul to them

beware those who ask for your story and actually want your body

beware those who ask for your story and actually want to show you theirs

beware those who ask for your story and then make jokes

beware those who ask for your story and then take notes

beware those who ask for your story and then practice amateur psychoanalysis

beware those who ask for your story and just don’t listen

beware those who ask for your story and listen especially for what you have not said 

beware those who ask for your story because they want you to tell their story and when you do not you will be told that you are not taking ownership of your story

beware those who ask for your story because they feel duty bound to do so

beware those who ask for your story so that they can have something to talk about

beware those who ask for your story to add to their story

beware those who ask for your story if they do not know you and never will 

beware those who ask for your story because once you are commoditised you will be programmed for obsolescence and this is your story we’re talking about and the only end is death

beware those who ask for your story because they want something to sacrifice to their gods

and you may turn inward with a pickaxe to please them with more stories

and you may prepare yourself to line the avenues of histories with your stories

and you may lay your body on the ground to be wedded by the reaper to this rancid horizon of all stories

and you may discover god on the way to your stories

and you may ordain yourself as a wellspring of new stories

and you may toil forgotten passed the tall stones above the valley to clear fonts of debris so all who want may be blessed by these stories

and you may petition the editor

who asked for your story

and then told their own

and you may give up the years that you had saved for your babies to desperate corrections

and you may forget your story

the only story

of a human

being

song