A couplet. Before and after.

PORCELAIN

My heart seems borne of frailty
Fragile I am.
Vulnerable under your guard.
My skin, once thick
And hard as diamond,
Turns to porcelain under your gaze.
I am breakable with you.
You hold my heart in your hands
Moulded like plastacine.
Every inch of me feels transparent
Around you, I am an open book.
Around you, I am lost
Around you, I am a million different languages
Just waiting to be spoken.
Around you I am safe.
I've never felt this safe before

PORCELAIN 2

My skin had turned to something,

Porcelain I said.

As though being that fragile

Meant we were more desirable,

Frailty through the skin

Of a broken object such as my heart,

Why should I have thought this desirable?

Because you broke me.

What I thought was impenetrable

You penetrated wholly and fiercely.

And all the while I thought it charming,

I was being deceived

By a false safety that you exuded.

And now I fall

Shattered to pieces.

Because of you, I am unwritten.

Because of you, I’m more lost.

Because of you, I am a dead language,

Soon to be forgotten.

Because of you I am vulnerable.

More vulnerable than I can afford to be.