Crustacean

I might have been a slug

But now I have acquired an exoskeleton,

And now I am crustacean.

Armed with a tough hard shell

The deceptive citadel

To protect my soft, fragile insides

Writhing in pain of an age old wound

But no longer naked

No longer visible to the public.

For now I have this shell

Unbreakable, impenetrable

Inside which I hide myself,

From your glee

And their luring smiles.

This shell, unbreakable

Inside which I stuff the fragments of memory

Now too feeble to warm me up

Or to suffocate my breath.

This shell, impenetrable,

Inside which I find my h(e)aven.

And you can no longer see my sluggish corps

Nor hurt it with your masquerade.

But you all shall wait until the day I break through

And show you what I had been fostering inside

Carefully, discreetly,

A white shimmering pearl;

Both delicate and strong at once

But too precious for you to afford.

#reading #writing #lessons