Where did you learn
Your need to pull 
Away?
Burying truth behind
A visage of clay
And where did you start
Believing distance was safe?
Or ice over warm, each time you’d take?
I wished I met you
Before
You learned in reverse
Drove with eyes closed
Radio tuned to conflict and silence
If I had the power
I’d rewind you
Like a China doll
Breakable and yet
How hard your ceramic stare
You penetrate any pretense
Even as you hold your own secrets
Tighter than a rubber band
Turning pinky swear
Purple