Killing Me With Criticism

It must cause you severe pain,
To congratulate me on my gains.
Perhaps it gives you thorough distress
to acknowledge and praise my success.

Would it kill you to rant of my excellence,
rather than my nuisance?
You speak as though I am a hindrance
yet have ignored my brilliance.

So I ask, why do you speculate my flaws,
And magnify the problems they cause?
And why must your awes and applause
become hushed beneath the loud scratching of your claws?

Like a mouse I am caught,
in the shadow of fraught.
It is a hawk that makes me distraught,
that tears me apart with angry words and thoughts.

I plead you to stop ripping me, limb by limb
or hitting me with your poisonous sting.
Do not accept me with cringing,
or judge me and blame it on caring.

Remember, I am not your prey, I am your friend,
Don't loathe, but love me as nature intends.