Shears

Everybody told me

Youth needs to be lived and loved.

I timidly watched it unfold

While I was in the backseat

Bracing for impact.

What I thought then, I know now

I'm always getting stuck in the shears.

They cut my trust, my loyalty

The friends I once thought I had

And the few I still cling on to.

Skillfully I paint the mask

That is etched into my skin

Praying that no one will come close

As to touch it and watch it crack

Then walk as it crumbles to dust.

Devotion, I am a slave to.

Every message you sent, every word

Every time you needed me, I ran

'Til my feet bled, my soul wept

And I caught you in your fall.

But I too fall, I slip

Face the ground with horror

I call for you, I shriek

But your shadow isn't there

Nor your loyalty or love

Or the things I thought you were.

I tell myself what they all told me

I need to live, I need to love.

Yet I've found myself stuck in the shears

With cut trust and loyalty

And a cropped youth.