Saltwater is dripping from the disintegrating curtain It stains and seeps through hollow walls Which collapse to reveal both the stranger and the lover It’s said you are not your emotions But the very placement in my brain and belly Revolves around our interaction And the hardest thing is resisting definition Around this reaction to temperament Meanwhile barely holding on What was I thinking to come to this After all who but I gave you the right For no one else can save or protect me now I deserve everything I get This is my reward for my neo-idealism The naiveté that I wear Like a dress you peel off and drop on the floor A prisoner I am my own jailer who locked herself in I lay open my innocence My dependence Like a little child who takes her father’s hand Foolishly I reached out Like a little child who takes her father’s hand I reached out and you stung me The price for intimacy and vulnerability Is the ability to inflict and receive pain So you have warned me now to pull back I rub my eyes with silk threads While knowing full well that venom is addictive