As I child I would not sleep
Till I was able to complete
The painstaking nightly task
Building a fortress around my bed
Teddy bears and dolls stand guard
Against monsters and trolls
Now I’m grown but cannot let go
Of this propensity for building walls
Secure , invisible , impenetrable
Around my heart and soul
To protect from the all too real pain
Of heartbreaks and disappointment
At times I long to let down the barricade
But fear and past experiences prevail
So I patch my fortress walls to safely hide
Yet all the while longing, trying
For something , anything
That can only be reached by breaking them