Again
9-25-06

You pushed me away, again All I wanted was to be your friend But you closed yourself off, far from me And said, “Never again…” You wear a mask to keep us all away But we stay around you anyway You never show the face behind And you just say, “Don’t stay…” Are you afraid of what we’ll see If we can pry your death mask free Do you fear what lies beneath the lies While you say, “Away from me…” And you pushed me away, again While inside you really wanted a friend You distance yourself, yet you cling to me, And ask, “Will you come back again?” “Will you still return when I need you? “Even though I say it isn’t true? “Can you hold this shameful child I am “And say, ‘I still love you’?” Tears may be weakness men don’t show But they show the melting of a cold heart’s snow And the flood you’ve held back for so many years Comes with a weak, “Don’t go…” I’ve been confused by the signals you send But now the mask is off, and here you stand. You’re still afraid, but gently I say, “I won’t leave you again.”

                       This is *yet another* almost-character composition. I have two characters specifically in my head, Matthias and Alexis from Killer Instinct (who are almost exactly the same as Matthias and Alexandria in my scrapped Heroless, since I pretty much just transferred the characters and changed very little personality-wise). Alex is talking to Matt in this, and, yeah, leave it to that crazy kid (he has PTSD so I guess I should give him a break) to distance himself and cling to her all at the same time.
                      As for the poetry aspect of this, I liked the idea of the four-liner with two first lines rhyming, a longer third one that doesn't rhyme with anything, and a short fourth one that rhymes with the first two with a quote in it every time. Strangely enough that's what propelled it. Though originally it was a song forming in my head with slightly different lyrics that I then turned into a character composition.

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