A budding writer's collection

SHAME UPON MY SLEEVES

I look for love,

Lantern's glow a melancholic blue,

A hue that mirrors the mark I bear,

The Shame Upon My Sleeve

Heart's tender beats seek a duet

That would catch its fall,

With each reciprocating highs

The Heart seeks, but the hands repel,

Pushing away all that is new,

For the comfort of all that it knew

The body fears being known,

Flaws that paint its canvas,

With red splattered on pristine white

Its right half mute to the call of the world,

Serving disappointment

As natural as the blink of an eye

Shame conducts the woeful tunes,

This body's shudder its devout disciple

Slight brushing of fingers,

A kiss that hardly softens its lips

Short-lived is the joy,

But long live the shame!

For all it tastes with its lover's lips' touch,

Is the shrine of unworthiness,

The truth that it fled from.

So, love when you come knocking again,

See my shame and embrace it

Don't beguile it; you'll only nourish it

But tell that steadfast companion of mine,

That it has served me long and well,

Promise to take its stead,

Stride the path away from its chaos,

Be the raft that'd save me from its unforgiving waves

And spend the years you have with me

Peeling the layers that shame cloaked the heart with,

Dig the truth buried in its crevices,

Hold a candle, lit to shine on its beauty,

And make it your duty,

'Til the Earth claims us both.