David Yezzi - Cough lyrics

I see you once I've got you down to size: a two-day-stubble squatter; jailbait eyes; the bottle-headed trophy mom; the mentor always angling his face down from the center of his universe to shine a light on yours. The fated anorexic, whose allures shimmer in the mirror for her eyes only, denying what her denial denies. Once you become a cliche I can hate you— or, treat me tenderly and let me date you. But that only retards the writing-off that comes with boredom, amour propre, or (cough) irreconcilable differences, i.e., those things about you that are least like me, yet just slightly different, my foible's h*mophone, so in hating yours I really hate my own. This keeps the focus where it wants to be— On whom, you ask? Invariably on.... See? I didn't even have to say, did I? I love you so much. No need to reply.