My body is no longer a safe place
I wake at night, wondering, what else lurks
Hiding, taking hold, infiltrating slyly
So I build a wall, a fortress
I’m good at this, I tell myself
Defender, protector, survivor
This I can do effortlessly
But builders are not soldiers
Not brave, at least, not me
when the enemy is within
So you raise me up to tall
All five feet three, and say,
‘it’ doesn’t know what its up against
unlike you, I’m invincible
But we know in your arms, I am braver
You say softly, come, be braver again
this time, for me.
a dawn bird
In response to Word of the Day Challenge – Gesture
A Shared Space 