#create a title

Layers upon layers, trappings

I once thought put up

By you as prudent protection

Then welcome mat rolled out

First wall down readily the next

Becoming a blade slicing in half

So swift it came back up as

I tried delicately crossing over

One severed section pitched back

Outside the weaponized walls

The other stuck, interminable

Liminal space--softness petrifying

More each day as toughening

Embraced--only scar tissue

And sharpened bones remain

Digging this part of me out

Even if forever changed will still

Be better off this way free

From the dingy den of self-seeking

Double dealing

Championship belts for my all women promotion on WWE2K18; Caliente Wrestling

1. CW World Championship

2. CW Tag Team Championship

3. CW Heart and Soul Championship (it’s like the IC/US title)

In perpetual mourning

Eyes never not aglitter

From tears coming or going

Widow's walk with every pace

The rare times she ventures

Forth from her sepulchral

Place, haunted house

Cobweb lace and musty linen

Books thumbed through desperately

Looking for comfort in the dust

And decay, accepting loss

As the lion's share of life

The dark underside ever darkening

For time takes away another

Precious piece of the puzzle

The remains crumble, gathered

Into a pell-mell pile

She has long forgotten

Carelessly crashing in

Expecting a cave

To stay and further sink

Sticky fangs; upping

The stakes to the sinister

Game--on the offensive

Making predictable swipes

Ignoble feints, foul plays

Upon failing flying into

A rage, trying to bite

Denigrating, defecating hate

Surveying the mess made I wipe

My hands clean so go back

Tangled in your sheets

Thrashed by more bad dreams

Misery your only close

Company--I hope you can

Still feel my love with every pulse

Of my heart reaching for you

Even when sound asleep

Doesn't mean you mean

Nothing to me; when I can't sense

Your pain I still want to know

All that keeps you awake and

What drenches thoroughly

Throughout the day if anything

When the sun shines on your face

Feel free to send a selfie

Gush and groan to me

As often as you need

I don't mind, I am here for whatever

You want to get off your chest

Rain or shine, day or night

Take your time and know

Whether or not the weather

Is on our side, I am

On yours with a love

That endures and abides

And hopes to comfort you

Through the highs and lows

Some things are so hard to say

When you don't want to believe

An ending has to be reached

Giddy goodness before

Making it impossible to feel good

About speaking aloud the words

Rising from your throat

Filling your mouth to fly out

Whether ready or not, hanging

In the air and staying there long

Enough to think maybe they

Can be pulled back until they float

Off into the ether leaving a feeling

Of being temporarily untethered

A balloon free of a happy hand

Buoyed along by tempestuous

Winds, tempted to deflate

Instead of waiting to see what's

Waiting around the bend

Beginning begets ending

Bringing new beginnings yet again

More words for the next chapter

In our personal choose-your-own-

Adventure books

Goodnight Moon

Goodbye, Mr. Chips

Broken boomerang

Lost in space

Rubber ball that won't

Bounce back but rolls

Under brush, collecting dust

Calling out with only echoes

In response, drawing

Closer to yourself

Really listen to what you have

To say instead of waving

It away as trivial--find your voice

Appreciate the sound of it

Make room in your heart

For you, becoming convivial

With every contour and shadow

Smile at yourself and give

The love and care you crave

You are worthy whether or not

Others reciprocate so reject

The notion that rejection