The Midnight Watch Poem by Lisa AT

You turned my garden to a field of flint,
A theatre of wars I never sought to wage.
I wore your shadows like a fingerprint,
And carried your silence like a heavy cage.
While you slept soundly in a hollow peace,
I was the anchor in a restless tide,
Counting the costs, seeking release,
Asking how trust could be cast aside.
​I questioned my value in the dark of the room,
Wondering how you could treat me so slight;
How the one who promised to banish the gloom
Could become the very source of the night.
​
​But here is the secret the wreckage revealed:
Flowers can grow through a crack in the stone.
The parts of my spirit I thought you had sealed
Are stronger for having to stand on their own.
I gathered the shards of the girl that I was,
Refining the edges until they grew bright;
I don't need your 'why' or a phantom because,
I have stepped out of the reach of your light.
​You didn't undo me; you only unmasked.
The mirror you broke showed me exactly who stayed.
Now I have answers I never even asked,
And I'm no longer haunted, or hurt, or afraid.
​
​The most potent truth is the one I now hold:
I am not waiting for words to be said.
The story is finished, the embers are cold,
And I've stopped trying to wake up the dead.
I am healed enough to turn toward the sun,
Strong enough to keep my back to your shore,
Wise enough to know that we are finally done,
And I've bolted the lock on my heart's inner door.
​You raided my peace like a thief in the night,
But I've reclaimed the crown and the key.
You may have once put out my light,
But you'll never again cast a shadow on me.