Unnecessary Roughness


Was I the object of your morbid curiosity

A reality show you couldn’t stop watching

Because your life fit together neatly

While mine was in pieces?


Was it always just about the job for you

Clinging to it like you had something to prove

Being a hero and helping the lost ones

Did you like that I needed you?


Was I a number who happened to have a name

A player who thought she knew the game

While you were the coach or the quarterback

Or somehow both at the same time?


Sometimes we’d miscommunicate the play

You’d pass the ball and l’d miss it

Sometimes I’d pass it back on fire and say,

“Now I’ll throw it and you catch.”


And you’d say, “What the hell was that?

This isn’t how the game is played.”

How often did I exasperate you except

Didn’t you love me when I made my catches?


And the crowd was always watching

We heard their cheering and booing

We were so good at tuning them out

Do you think they miss us now?


They never knew what we might do

Two passionate players, stars on the same team

A season of caring and unnecessary roughness

Those were the glory days of me and you.