THE FORTRESS

For I've a fortress around me,
surrounding, closing, binding, enclosing.
For I've been building it a while,
slowly, carefully, painstakingly, deliberately.




The walls engulf, the walls hold,
The walls calm, the walls scold.
A torrent of emotions inside waiting to let go,
The walls, controlling, willing to attack my foe.




For the wall is the mask, the veil,
It disguises the passions within, the gale.
For once in a while, it puts an emotion or two in the gallows,
The voices, inherent, screaming from the hollows.




The walls protect, the walls guide,
The walls preserve, the walls hide.
A fragile beast encumbered, sleeping,
Shouldn't let go, the walls dictating.





For now, the walls of the fortress wither,
weak, tremor, shudder, powerless.
Something corroding, eating away at the wall,
Noxious, malicious, venomous...





The fortress has been a friend, a confidant,
A comrade, a martyr.
The beast wakes up now, to say to all,
I can do without, I can do sans the wall.





For what matters is not the poison,
But the actuality of it seeping unto me.
For now, I realise, I sans fortress, sans walls,
Who will be my salvation, to save me?