How Dare You Poem by Soulful One

How dare you
open me up
and walk through my soul,
take possession of my heart
and leave me empty
I thought you would be
the one,
the last one,
the only one
who would finally
accept and embrace
the True Me
not the one who would
dress me up
and display me
for all to see in your
Expectations of Me
expectations fuelled by fears
to fill up the holes
cover over the pain
and help you pretend
the world was the way
you wanted it to be
you pulled out the falsehoods
buried in the depths of your heart
airing them out
and dusting them off saying
'yes, this is it, this is who I need you to be'
Yet against my reluctant
and protesting words
trying to convince you
that Me, the True Me
was enough
you told me to
suit up and shut up or else….
or else…
it was this way, or no way…
and here I thought you would be
the One,
the last one,
the only One…

how dare you not be
who I thought you were,
who I dreamed you would be for me….
you gave me love
with conditions
and demanded I dress up in
your expectations
so that you could feel safe…
you never really saw
the True Me
and when she occasionally peaked
out from behind the mask
she came face to face with
the strength of your anger,
the protector,
the champion of your fear
who then banished her,
banished Me
back behind the iron curtain….
there was no acceptance of
my imperfect humanness
or forgiveness of any shortcomings
or empathy for the less travelled road
that lead me here,
you cajoled and coaxed
seduced and requested
then ultimately demanded
my compliance
to play my expected part…
it was foolish of me to think
you just needed more time
there was more you needed to learn
more I could teach you about
being the True You
while letting me be
the True Me
but the sands of time ran out
and strong winds blew it away
and the veil was finally lifted
so that I could now See
what my heart refused to believe
that your fear
would never allow
you to be You
nor ever accept
me to be
the True Me
the Me
who could not fit in a box
who colored outside the lines
who blended and broke labels
who would not suck it up nor suck it in
to squeeze into your
limiting expectations of me
how dare you
try to break me to fit your mold
how dare you
love a me that was not Me
how dare you
open me up
and walk through my soul
steal away my heart
leaving me empty
and scarred in your wake…
how dare you