Strategy of Defense

  Don't step too close to me
--I'll only get claustrophobic
Don't expect me to lower my shields
--I bruise too easily
If, by any chance
Something like this should happen
My next move will be anger
Then anger raises my defenses
Since attack is the best defence
I hurl my verbal knives at you
Sharp, stailness steel words
Trying to slash the throat
Of your exposed emotions
I unsheat my sword
Dripping with poisonous scorn
Swinging it with a grim satisfaction
Trying to stab to death
The heart you're wearing on your sleeve
Hiding my own vulnerability
So foolishly exposed
In a moment of naivety
Behind a shield strengthened
By anger and contempt
Keeping you at bay
To maintain the distance
Once lost, now fought for and regained
Denying there ever was
A crack in my defence
Who'd ever confess such a weakness
In a strategy play of power

 

   

© Amber Drake 2024
(First draft written when I was 23.)

 

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