Breaching Her Fortresses

I chanced upon grace, upon beauty.
Immeasurable fire within piercing eyes.
I gazed through that fire to seek
her soul.
I found strength, persistent pain, and
a scared child cloaked in patchwork quilts
of disguise.
I found unabiding protective arms.
Unfathomable determination to keep safe
her charges.
I found the dented shields that once deflected
so many attempts to fell her.
I found new shields at the ready.
I found walls to scale, fortresses.
I saw deep wounds upon her body.
Wounds never properly cared for
left to heal through only time.
Ugly wounds that would vanquish
a lesser warrior.
I closely examined those wounds,
and in their colors, hues, and textures,
discovered beauty.
A beauty wrought through willful desire
to be unbroken, unscarred.

I found such beauty and raw desire.
I found such lust and wanton will.
I'm better for having scaled those walls.
For breaching those fortresses.
I found a Warrior Goddess.
And made her mine.