Playing Games With My Head

Playing Games Haiku

Playing with my head

You think you’re a step ahead

playing with my head

♦️♣️♥️♠️

Playing Games With My Head

You sit across from me, smiling,

Shuffling silence like marked cards.

Every word you deal is polished,

Every promise bent and barred.

I watch your fingers tap the table,

Hear the quiet in what you never said.

You call it chance, you call it nothing,

But you are playing games with my head.

You move the pieces slow and careful,

As if I will not see the thread.

You tilt the board when I am certain,

You crown yourself when hope has fled.

I ask you straight, you answer sideways,

Soft as smoke, sharp as lead.

You swear the rules are fair and honest,

Still you are playing games with my head.

You hide behind a laugh too easy,

Behind a shrug, behind a grin.

You say I think too much, too deeply,

That every loss is still a win.

But doubt does not grow from nowhere,

It is planted by what you have said.

Do not call me mad for noticing

You are playing games with my head.

I used to fold, I used to tremble,

Counting cracks above my bed.

Tracing back each conversation,

Hearing echoes of what you said.

Was it truth or was it testing,

Was it love or careful dread.

I lay awake and felt the spinning

Of you playing games with my head.

Now I gather up the pieces,

Set them down with steady hands.

I see the pattern in your kindness,

In your shifting, silver plans.

You thrive on doubt and blurred intentions,

On keeping clarity misled.

But I am done with being your board,

Done with your games inside my head.

So keep your cards and keep your riddles,

Find another heart to thread.

I will not sit beneath your shadow,

Questioning each word you spread.

The only move I make is leaving,

Rising tall where once I bled.

You cannot win what I withdraw,

No more games inside my head.