The whispers turn to echoes here.
This place where darkness thrives
and secrets hide.
You hear it breathing.
It calls your name.
Hidden in the corner,
you clench your mask of light..
What once was bright is fading.
The dark is overtaking it.
For a moment, there is quiet.
Your heart is pounding
palms are sweating.
Hold it together..
Cries from the past are creeping in.
They'll find you here.
These memories will consume you.
Their intent is clear.
They will never let you get out alive.
On ****** hands and blistered knees,
You'll crawl away.
Fumbling across the glass filled floor
From all the broken mirrors
that promised something more.
Blindfolded by the dark
You pray.
When the tears started,
you can't quite tell.
Times stands still here.
If it weren't so cold
you'd think it was Hell.

My boyfriend asked me to strip for him, so I did.

First I took off my pride. I wore it like a shawl to protect all my insecurities. He loved it.

I took off my shame. It hung around my legs, a thousand uncomfortable memories wound tight
like twine to hide my ability to be free and open. He loved it.

I took off my fear. They gripped my feet like stone slippers, hoping to keep me from ever leaping
as far as I was capable, often succeeding. He loved it.

Finally I took off my doubt. The doubt that was there so long it had become me. I ripped it off
revealing the flesh of my love for him and the bone-depth of my feelings for him and the blood
that rushed for only him, forever.

He didn’t love that.

He left wearing my clothes.

I dressed for winter.