I’ve come to realize
you are a comma.
I'll make you stop and take a breath, / and you'll continue, or else comes death.
Commas allow one to take a brief pause when reading. I think the second line references either literal death (if the reader doesn’t exhale) or the death of the idea conveyed by the sentence read.
I'm smart - my brother went to college / across the seas to gain some knowledge.
A reference to the Oxford comma. Named after the Oxford University Press, it is an optional comma that precedes “and” within a list (though, if you ask me, it ain’t optional). :-)
Some people don't like me nearly enough - /
it makes understanding them I think too tough.
Commas may be seen as unnecessary clutter. However, a lack of commas can cause confusion, as (maybe?) exemplified here.
But one thing's for certain and, man, this is true -
I'd rather see too many me's than too few.
I agree; I prefer commas for the sake of clarity. A sentence’s meaning can change if it’s missing a sorely needed comma. See here for a fun joke.