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ashley pagano Sep 12
I was always the protector.
So much and so many to always look out for.
Until you walked in.
Now I can lean into my feminine.

How do I just turn off my defenses?
Waiting for the catastrophe to hit.
With you I feel so safe and sound,
I almost just forget.

Your world is a haven that welcomed me with open arms.
Misjudged all intentions, manipulation accusations, all to protect myself from possible harm.
I just want to be soft, gentle and let down my guard.
With you, it's really not all that hard.

I have emotional damage.
I have a lot of ******* baggage.
Didn't realize I held it so close to my side, when I thought i had let go if it all.
Feel like the world is always in flames and I'm the only one that came coax the rain to fall.

How do I let these walls tumble down?
They took so long to build up.
I surrender to the warmth of your shield
But it doesn't feel like giving up. It's just giving in. Letting myself breathe again.

Everyone supposed to keep me safe always failed that task.
Found myself in harms way and when the actions and words didn't match,
I couldn't trust another soul, i just braced myself for the attack.
Scrambling to keep myself safe til i landed safely in your hands.
It's so easy to imagine my future now that you're here.
But it's also so easy to spiral, fueled by all my deepest fears.
I want to believe our love can last, not like the ones from my past.
I want to believe we can thrive because you've never shown me otherwise.
I want to believe.

But babe I got this mind and it don't work right.
Tells me everyone's lying when I'm trying to sleep at night.
Tells me I'm being deceived like it's trying to protect me from something i would never have seen coming.

My mind is always filled with doubt, it's a real issue.
But my heart sees you and knows the truth.
It's like mixed messages coming from both all the time.
And I'm sifting through signals just trying to refine.
It's tiring to do, but i want nothing more than to be here with you.

I'm not trying to scare you, truly.
I'm just coming forward, accountability.
I know these things about myself i try to ignore.
But I gotta warn you what you're in for.
ashley pagano Jul 31
You were supposed to protect me.
Yet I never felt safe.
Even now, it's like I'm always reaching,
For what I've been taught, a mother should be.

Everything feels like a competition.
Everything feels like a race.
I can't share a single vulnerable moment,
Without you throwing it back in my face.

So I try communication.
I say you hurt me when you did this and that.
You'd think a mother would care to say sorry.
But you take it as a personal attack.

I know you say that you love me.
But part of love is caring how you make me feel.
All the hurt I wear draped on my body,
To you is never a big deal.

So I distance myself to protect what's left of me.
If that makes me selfish, ungrateful and cruel.
I will wear those names with dignity.
Because even in my hurt, I've still always tried to find common ground with you.
It's only brought on more pain.
The realization you'd never do the same.
You played the victim so long it's time you actually are.
So when you meet with your gossipy friends at the bar,
You can tell them what an ungrateful child you raised.
And bask in their sympathy, eat up their praise.
I'm sure the story you told them had some deep, deep holes.
Lies they could never trace.
Maybe you just can't admit it to yourself,
So it'd be silly for me to wait for you to admit it to my face.

This is on you. I'm aiming for peace and tranquility.
You pushed me away with your lack of accountability.
And letting go hurts me. It cuts deeply into me.
But there is a lightness now. I can finally be free.
ashley pagano Jul 23
I don't know how to love you anymore.
Is it love if it feels like obligation?
I don't know how to share things with you now.
So I let you create stories with your imagination.

I keep my failures and success on a shelf.
It's a way for me to keep protecting myself.
You knowing anything feels far too vulnerable for me.
Cuz you have a history of using it all against me.

You lean on me when I've never been that sturdy.
I've told you before but you never really heard me.
You tell me you admire my independence.
I react to your admiration with defense.
Cuz you never really listened and if you did,
You'd know what a lonely road it's been.

I know you never received the love you desire.
I sympathize for you, but that sympathy grows tired.
Because you could've changed the cycle with me.
Instead you repeated history.
I don't want to carry this resentment anymore.
But I also can't seem to leave it on the floor.
Believe me I have tried, but it's always by my side.
I cannot forgive something you were never sorry for.
I needed a protector.
ashley pagano May 21
You were supposed to be my protector.
Still I weathered all the storms.
Too young to know you're a projector
I carried your burdens like a torch.
And when I let that flame burn out.
You couldn't bare to witness the change.
Wrapped my arms around myself.
Not round your finger where you had me hanged.
I'm not some extension of your soul.
I'm not some painting on your wall.
Bragging about my success as if you played a role.
You love to take credit for it all.
I guess I've got to give credit where it's due.
I watched the way you lived your life.
You'd draw me in to stab me right in the chest.
So I ran away from the knife.
I guess it made me who I am.
So if that makes you proud then fine.
A lotus, head buried in the sand.
Only to flourish in the sunlight when it was time.
It must be hard for you to see.
Cuz you misery needs it's company.
And while you don't deserve it at all.
I guess you got my sympathy.
I don't carry your **** with me anymore.
Just this resentment always lingering.
You were supposed to be my guide.
Ignorantly I clung to your side.
Just for you to throw me to the wolves.
Just to judge me, so I'd hide.
But now that I make my presence known.
It feels like an insult to your pride.
I won't live my life in the shadows.
Just for you to feel alright inside.
I'm not responsible for your decisions.
I'm not responsible for your life.
You made your bed with such confidence.
And now it is where you must lie.
ashley pagano Jan 27
Counting the years of my life I hid underground while yearning for sunlight.
Telling myself there is simply nothing left for me in this life.
I could've given it all up. I thought about it every day.
When the current you're swimming in feels constant.
When the winds feel like they'll never change.
You think life will be this way forever,
because you can't imagine how quickly it can rearrange.

I fought like a warrior for freedom.
Shed layers that were just heavy weight for me.
and underneath all the armor I burdened myself with
There were wings were begging to be freed.

Now I ponder the girl that wanted to abandon it.
I think of all the experiences she would have missed.
I cry for her sorrow feeling so eternal.
I want to show her that just around the corner there was bliss.
And I want to hurt her, because she almost robbed me
Of all this love and light that she intended to keep us from.
Underneath all of that sympathy I carry for her
Is a relief I now feel, that she longed to feel deeply.
I want to share it with her.
Tell her it's ok to hold on.

I imagine my soul in the sky, looking down.
All the lessons that i almost never learned.
All the people I almost never met.
All the love I almost never knew i had.
All the tears I never would have cried.
All the souls i would have never touched.
All the sounds i would have never heard.
All the laughs that would stay buried in my lifeless chest
All that I have achieved in my life, laid to rest.
I almost never did any of it.
I almost left.
I almost did.
If you were to ask me now how often i think about checking out sooner than originally planned.
I'd say almost never.
ashley pagano Oct 2021
Your handprint on my chest.
Your touch seared into my flesh.
All this time that's gone right by.
So many moments, just an occasion.

You are just a fragment of my story.
You helped me find peace, and evoked such fury.
I thought I'd cry out for you at night,
only to learn you were never my foundation.

Then the ground started to shake,
and everything I thought was sturdy, revealed itself to be hollow.
But as I picked myself back up
I found my intuition was the one to follow.
I depended on someone that never had what it takes to be that strong.
But I had it all along.

I found bouts of loneliness along my path.
I felt my own doubt, withstood the pain of my very own wrath.
Until all this pain became such a large part of me.
So much of it self inflicted, I had to truly detach to be free,

I never meant to make you feel like just a plague.
You brought so much good that got lost along the way.
I never forgot it. I hope I never will.
There are memories that I recall that I smile about still.

Wherever you end up I hope your scenery treats you well.
I wish for you to grow so tall and flourish for yourself.
Once I embraced healing, I was finally able to embrace change.
It scared me half to death but alleviated my pain.

There were times I thought I'd hit the floor for good.
I didn't want to get back up and I didn't think I could.
You were a weight on my neck, but I never told you that before.
You couldn't have known. It's still something I'm sorry for.
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