The Protector ✟ New Again

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The role of a protector is one often thrust onto us who find ouselves engulfed within it, despite never feeling the other side,

It turns our minds to castles, our hearts to stone, and fills us with walls we hide those we love behind,

But every castle was built to be a defense, for those inside it's warmth to be able to sit beside it's hearth and get comfortable within,

It's the castle that takes the brunt of all the hits,

The hard stone that gets chipped at by endless onslaughts without a hint of relent,

We rush to repair the cracks they make, before any weakness can be found,

For one tiny show of vulnerability,

Could bring our castle down.

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If only I could rebegin, be new again,

I'd save myself the pain of bargaining,

And all who pleaded or began appealing,

For something they believed that I alone could give them,

Would be met with this learned stoicism and disillusion,

As I simply asked, "Why must I have an opinion?"

And as my usefulness to them faded,

So would they, and out my life, I know they'd all go again.

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