Cracks Ran Deep

This heart was once an open field,  

Soft and warm, a place to yield.  

Where dreams would dance in endless skies,  

Before the world revealed its lies.  

Once I laughed without a guard,  

No walls to shield, no skin so scarred.  

I trusted hands that held my own,  

Till pain carved castles out of stone.  

The blows came swift, the cracks ran deep,  

Each wound a secret I would keep.  

The world grew colder, so did I,  

A fortress built to pacify.  

But I was not always this way,  

Hardened now, come what may.  

The kindness you no longer see  

Was buried by the hurt in me.  

Though this armor serves me well,  

It echoes with the tales I’ll never tell.  

For beneath this shield, a truth persists:  

I was not always like this.