Sugar In The Gas Tank Poem by Raj Dronamraju

Not like one who swallows the scene or otherwise makes a complete takeover - a general and his army
More like a sponge soaking up everything, slow assimilation, a passive invasion that comes on so slowly no one fights back
They welcomed you and they committed sabotage against you
There's no way you are getting out of here

It would be so easy to do what everyone else does
Check out the way I show my teeth, check out the way I show I'm listening - pert cat-like stance
Gratitude for skin tight empathetic falsehoods so exquisitely delivered
Privately, you yawn and your jackal soul comes out and stretches
The good and timid man of the discarded past whimpers quietly in the cupboard

Talking on a level as if we are the normal ones
Two people pretending a discourse rather than the knowledge that you were the one who came around late last night when everyone was asleep and did the damage
The car won't start and neither can I get going
The way I used to be so alive that I felt like I needed to offload some of this energy
Now there's no reserve of power
Everything's been blotted out, absorbed
Our room feels like it's been encased in amber and we are the flies within