Robust numbers resist
With stubborn clarity
As tunnelvision experience suborns denial
Facts persist

Quilting words to pad
This unfathomable ache
Wrap me up hollow

Immersed in meadowfoam nectar
Deputised to cross the threshold
Feaster feeds a future

& then
Finally knowing itself
Candour rode naked
Unwrapped in a splendour
Born in shade
Freed finally from the clamour
Of clinging on
This raw dark undappled
A ripe fruit
Plucked from empty branches
After the fall

You found me at the point
Where resignation had shaded,
Quite when I don't remember,
Into contempt
The spiteful joy of being that bit better
Standing just a little higher

& contempt was in your eyes too
The urge to rise above me
Cradle yourself in haloes

Yet you smoothed your face out
Your I could never go there's
& started asking questions
& truly wanting answers

I stood against
Denial was my brother
Knowing I simply had to

Still you persevered
A prison door ajar
A fulcrum steady levered
Help me guide my own hand