Shell Poem by Mary Champion

My hermit soul came naked to the world
and shrivelled in the spotlight of their gaze.
They beckoned me to join their complex game
but I didn't know the rules and feared their scorn.

Yet, deep within, I yearned to join the crowd,
to be accepted in their tangled world
and so, an empty replica I made
then sent it out to masquerade as me.

Its hardened case would not flinch from the blows,
the slights, real and imagined, it endured.
Effectively it hid the furtive tears
my inner self let flow in solitude.

My tender soul retreated from the world
to view it from the outside - looking in.
But no one ever guessed I wasn't there,
‘twas but a shell I'd sent out in my place.