Wrap your arms about me,
as we ride across this desolate land.
Pull me close and never let me go.
Place your gentle hands in the chinks of my armor,
to stifle the torrent of pain,
flowing from the wounds I bear inside.
Feel the quake of life against your palms
as your precious heart trembles against my back.
Restlessly I roamed in search of you,
thinking to rescue you from perils I imagined all around.
I sought to prove myself by being your salvation.
As if I would slay the ferocious dragon that was holding you captive,
and sweep you off of your feet, to gallop into the falling sun.
What I found instead, as I rode beneath the barren sky,
with naught but the bloodless moon for company,
was the dragon coiled within my cage of ribs,
burning a hole through my chest,
melting my core,
consuming me with a flaming tongue that I was too numb to feel.
Although the adversity I carried, was the only real foe,
frailty would not allow me,
to  fell this loathsome beat within.
Swaddled in my illusions,
just a wretched fool, not worthy even of pity,
jousting at windmills in my dreams.
Somewhere along my demented journey,
you glimpsed this madman,
fighting through his world of fantasy,
swinging his sword at the demons of his own creation.
To laugh at such a jester, would have been your due,
but instead of derision you bestowed compassion,
and mercy in the place of mirth.
Reaching through the shroud of lunacy,
segregating me from truth,
you plucked the devil from my breast,
and replaced it with the soul I did not know I lacked.
Now I understand that it was not you in need of succor,
for I was the one who was lost.
Unable to perceive you through the fog of my mind.
But you were always out there, waiting patiently,
for me to let you find me,
and deliver me from myself.