Before You

Before You…

My world was an ice age
Where the sun never shined
My bed was the bucket
Where I emptied my sorrows 
I crafted many masks
To deceive those around me. 
A tangled mass of iron
Rested heavy in my chest
And weighed me down
Till my feet sank deep 
Into the ground
I was drowning

Then you come and shoot
Apart the mass with a shining
Arrow of light that ignites a fire
Behind my eyes 
The roots that keep me contained
dissolve and set me free 
My body lightens 
To the weight of a feather
my room is no longer
a cave I crawl to when my legs give way
my smile is no longer transparent 

Before you I was dead
but now, as you hold
my hand, caress my cheek 
and capture my gaze 
I can live again.