Every fibre of my being
Tells a story that is at odds
To what I’ve let on to the world,
And it is hard to exist in this state of dichotomy.

Wisdom cries aloud that there is relief
When the burden is cast down, or shared;
Yet there is also wisdom in protecting
What remains of my sacrosanct dignity.

For even the inviolable can be subject
To brute force attacks that defy norms,
And what is left in the wake of such as these,
Is a void – the word that rubs against an edge of this feeling.