Oh, my heart

Was so fragile

And brittle like crystal.

So easily broken

By an unkind word

Or cruel gesture

That could scratch

Or even crack!

I hid them.

And wore Teflon

For the world to see

An unscathed mien.

But deep within my tender heart

I felt the wounds.

Yet, covered they were

From probing eyes

Concealing all the hurts

Showing to all the world

An unbroken facade.

Time, in its inimical fashion,

Passed unhindered,

Not seeking palliatives.

The heart lived-

Albeit stitched  and patched-

Unlike the crystal

Surviving as a whole

Surviving sturdily 

The buffets of time,

The thorns of relations

And the cruel ills of society,

Declaring to the world,

“I have lived

And have grown stout”.