At An Arms Length Poem by CHARMAINE SIMPSON

When your heart has suffered pain and can no longer cope
Your mind forms a plan to help and protect with clear logic
This is done by creating walls only visible in your thoughts

Picture yourself standing in a large open unguarded space
Draw a circle that surrounds you at an arms length
Imagine this circle as an invisible wall that can not be broken
There is no way for any other person to enter your space.

Another 3 walls will enclose this one as they span outward
Each space further and further away from my heart
Within the closest space I will hold a very few souls
Those I choose to trust in my life as well as in my heart.
They will be so close yet still at an arms length.

Each outer circle will contain other friends or people
Those who are still part of my life and some who come and go
The ones furthest away are put there so that in my minds eye
Their position is far enough to no longer impact my emotions

Will the arms distance in my mind protect me from the pain?
The point blank pain that strikes from out of no where
When least expected piercing with a sharp cold deep ache
The weapon that sinks heavy with betrayal as its strength
Searching for any emotion that may have been attached to
Who it was I believed I could trust enough to keep close to me
It leaves behind the scars of deceit, falseness and nasty lies.

I now hold onto what still remains of my faith and trust
There are those who are a part of who I am and feel inside
I give to them unconditional love and my heartfelt emotions
This is my inner circle with no walls built to guard my heart
I reach out at an arms length not to create a distance but
To embrace and hold close to my heart those I love dearly.