The Middle With No Me

I can see your side
I can see theirs
I can't find mine

I keep my feelings in a briefcase, neat
Filed under "fine" and "don't make a scene"
I translate your fury into something fair
Turn their sharp words into breathable air

You ask what I want—my mouth goes thin
I only know the middle, not my skin

I kept the scales so level I disappeared
Perfect balance, perfect silence, perfect fear
If I choose, I'm cruel—if I don't, I bleed
I'm the middle with no me

Neutral is a knife, cold against my teeth
I can weigh the world, I can't choose me

Three a.m. in an empty court
No case to hold, no voice to sort
The scales hang still like chandelier
Two pans empty—nothing here

I wrote closing arguments for you, for them
I never learned the words "I am"

I kept the scales so level I disappeared
Perfect balance, perfect silence, perfect fear
If I choose, I'm cruel—if I don't, I bleed
I'm the middle with no me

Give me one ugly want
One honest side
Let the scales swing

Let the glass break, let the air rush in
Let my "no" be loud enough to live
I'd rather be wrong in my own skin
Than right and gone again

I kept the scales so level I disappeared
No more perfect—no more vanished—no more fear

The scales can tip
I will not vanish