Two-Faced Pride

"We stop looking for monsters under the bed when we realize they're inside of us."

                                                                                                                                     -Jordyn Berner

Pride is like oxygen,
Something I can never let go of.
I push it though my veins
And let it nourish me.
Like oxygen,
It feeds me; it keeps me alive.
I convince myself
That I am greater than I am,
That I am stronger than I am,
That I am controlling and powerful.
But in reality,
It sucks the life from me.
Unlike the oxygen that ages me,
Pride makes me childish.
It makes me stubborn,
It makes me arrogant,
It makes me unfeeling.
It shuts me away
From the humanity I long to be part of
And from the love I long to feel.
It is my means of survival,
And yet it is killing me.