by Tally-Ho

There's a wall around me
two feet thick
yet no one can see it.

Its bricks are made of pain,
of taunts and teasing, imagined slights,
of being outside, of never belonging, and
many other youthful longings.
Its mortar is strong, made up of fear
and tears and each little heartbreak.

I've hidden behind this wall for years.

And yet
just when I try to open up, I discover
the wall was not my protection
but my prison.
Keeping me from warmth and love,
locked up cold inside my past pain.

Would I ever be free again?

Hope came with brown eyes,
a gentle smile and a warm laugh.
I don't know how you found
your way inside my prison
of cold stone and memory.

Now the walls are not as strong
as they once were.
Slowly, so slowly they crumble around me.
And I know you stand outside
to lead me into warm sunshine
and never let me be cold again.