A face of steel is easy 
When hidden behind.
Lost in false hope,
Drowning under memories
That my shoulders cannot hold;
They buckle in sharp flaws.
Watch me break at dawn
And vanish into dust.
My soul entrenched
Under a cotton shroud,
Unable to rise.
I will never again stand 
So boldly.
Time, the only healer,
Has stopped,
And I am lost
In forgotten thoughts
As hopelessness ensnares.
And in the dying embers
Of the vigil flame
I lay and blister
Until the very breaking of the world.