Tender with you

I will be tender with you

Even though your crusty outside

Belies the truth inside

Even though you look on me with a gaze

That seems to say

You are such a strange and alien creature

I will see deeper

Far beyond the defences you erect

To the frosty space inside

That contains a child in an icecube

All frozen

You were never shown tenderness

You don’t have the strength I have

To collapse into and feel a soul that aches

You take your numbing medicine

To hide from deeper truths

Why should I scorn you

Or show anger

When really that will just cause me further pain

Instead I will be tender with you

Knowing that

Even though you scorn my tenderness

Your reaction was never about me

I will not let the arrow of attack lodge

Too deep

Inside my own skin

I deserve better

And so did you

You just didn’t get it

And that is sad

Whether or not you recognise it

So I will be tender with you

Because my own wounds have taught me

To be tender with my self