Stress — Summary

LarryAnxious

it hurts, it pains me every day I make bad decisions, to keep it from coming for me it's like when you fill up a water bottle and you lose focus then I explode it comes out, when I don't see it coming stress it's something that I cannot control even when life's may finally be good she makes it great and that's hard to take but that's just how we roll sometimes we chat all night long even when I plead guilty she never goes away I can fly across the earth and she will still find me I keep pushing her away she'll never stay stress she's built inside of me if I throw her away she always comes back

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Larry turns stress into a person, a "she" who won't leave him alone. The poem reads like a strange, tense relationship: she follows him across the world, chats with him all night, and keeps coming back no matter how often he pushes her away. By the end, he admits she is "built inside" him, so throwing her out isn't really possible.

The speaker sounds worn down and a little ashamed. He talks about making bad decisions to avoid stress and then exploding without warning, which he compares to an overfilled water bottle. There's an odd tenderness too. When life is good, she makes it "great," and he finds that hard to take, as if even happiness feels like pressure. The mood is weary and uneasy, but also honest. The casual phrase "that's just how we roll" suggests he has half-accepted the struggle, even though it still hurts.

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