Coping Mechanisms

Sometimes the only safe place is inside yourself.

Locking our
                selves into
            greywalledrooms
is what we
                do
                     best
                  to forget
                the com p l
                                 i c a
                                        t
                                          i
                                           o
                                             n
                                              s

            There were
days and weeks of she and her
 and you-know-who, and then
 when so-and-so was still just
 so-and-so and you did things
 just-because,
     I knew that I could love you

(and oh,
I still could now)

       but
                 that
                     isn't im p o
                                  r t
                                      a
                                     n
                                  t
                                     (because l
                                                  o
                                                  cking ourselves  i n  t   o
                                                  it's what we [both] do best)

We struggle our separate ways on
separate roads in our separate beds
With our internal clocks that refuse
to recognise any sort of standardised time;
With our peripherals filled with the same monster,
wearing different masks.

Locking
Lock
   ing
l
 o
  cking
  OURself -sss
                  s s s  s   s     i  n   t    o

Author's Note

This one hasn't gone through much editing yet, and I'm still playing with the visual aspect. Definitely open for heavy revision, but I feel like I should note that the dissonance is both intentional & important.