She and I

There was a time she swore off love,
Swore off human contact,
With a smile plastered to her lips,
She hid from the world that caused her pain,
Hid from the hands that reached to touch

Shadowed in a mask of contempt and strength
Inside her tower of self-reliance,
She shied away from each tender heart
Hiding from the past and the future
Within a barricade of laughter false

Her eyes were dead, though her lips, they laughed,
Her soul was stagnant and her heart bereft
For the future she saw was a lonely horizon
Full of anguish and past torments -
Until he sought her very soul

He held my hand with every step
That led me to the light
Far from my darkened corner,
Out from the lonely night,
Out into starlit day

With each step my mask corroded
And fell away forever
Now I laugh with a joyous heart,
Now my smile does reach my eyes,
Now a sunrise lights my horizon

For he gazed deep inside my soul,
And caressed away the past,
For he gazed deep inside my soul
And loved me for each flaw,
And taught me how to love

She and I are so very different,
She let the past hold her down
But I soar above that pain,
Yet for all this, She was I,
But she was lost, and I am found