Steel Limbs

There was a time when

I thought my life would depend

On others, holding, grasping,

piecing me together 

Eternal suffocation in their steel limbs

Except longing,

oh the longing! Of their arms to fall,

fall, let me just fall

Apart, let the darkness of the oblivion,

The swallowed soul tear itself away

from my brittle bones, my helpless flesh

Of which that diseased soul had consumed.

It was only when my hoarse calls were heard

when I screamed for their arms to fall, fall, 

Let them fall!

And I felt the cracks of my bones widen, 

the lifeless flesh being torn piece by piece

That I realised

The limbs of steel, not stifling

But a source of endless strength.

Yet they had gone. And the cold

Sneaked, snaked, seeped its way into

My wounds. I was gone,

for sure I was gone! Ended! 

And I wondered, had I been so vain 

As to think that I was better off

without those steel limbs, rejecting the strength,

their unity, that kept me whole?

"Do not depend on others for your happiness,"

It is not true, not true,

Let others in. Let them

fill the cracks of your brittle bones, your helpless flesh.

A diseased soul is not diseased

at all, just unrecognised, unfamiliar

And without darkness light has no meaning.

And so I lay, paralysed, broken,

Raw from the

Leaden, dead feeling

Of no one. Pressing, suffocating.

No arms, no steel limbs.

No one.

Let them in, let them in,

Just let them in.