Reading each other's mind.
Finishing each other's sentences.
Feeling each other's pain.
Is it possible to fake it?
Is it possible to simulate
Sensitivity?
The contradiction between this
And emotional violence,
Between this
And egocentric
Manipulation
Is unfathomable.
Irreconcilable.
Like two separate people.
The separation complete.
No wonder
I didn't understand.
I only knew one of them.
And I loved him so much.
His sensitivity
His gentleness.

The darker side
I never knew.
Never recognised the glimpses of it
That I did see.
That side I cannot love,
But the wounded sensitivity
That gave it birth
Prompts sorrowful
Compassion.

The struggle is within him now
For supremacy over his soul,
And the poor wounded one
Can scarcely be seen
Any more.
And the harshness of the other
Drives me out.
But the struggle is his,
And my presence can only
Give strength to the darkness,
For the anger that powers it
Sharpens on me.
 

© 1994, Carmel Pacey Digby

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