Remise

You told me you liked to fence
and I thought I'd give you a shot
I didn't know that you were one
to so heedlessly break the rules.
So we danced, jabbed, gouged, scratched.
You've practiced so much on your own
that you think you can anticipate
my every move.
I have a few surprises up my sleeve
thinking it's all for fun.
But you didn't tell me the stakes
and you have a different game in mind:
one that ends in my demise.
So you maneuver me into a corner
I've never been one to surrender
and I won't put up my white flag.
And you'll have justice at any cost
even if your means are unjust
everything has to be even: tit for tat.
So if I've had a couple little scratches
you have the right to cut me deeper
than anyone else has.
I need to learn a lesson you say
and we both know
that you want to be the father to give it.
As you cut through my protective suit
with a couple swishes of your sword
and tear off my mask so I have to look at you.
"This is for your own good," you say,
like so many others have told me
as they rip me to shreds
and steal everything I try to keep sacred.
And my eyes and my scream say
"help me, help me, I didn't know..."
but there will be no help;
as if there ever was any.
All I ever wanted was for someone
to stand in front of me
and not let me be the sacrificial lamb
slaughtered on the table for the wrath and needs
of men who do not care for me.
Your real anger lurks with a woman
you cannot reach,
and so here I am instead to take her place
you cannot bare the least resemblance of her.
No one will come this time to protect,
and probably not the next
all I can do is disintegrate onto the floor
and wait until it's safe
to pick up these smoldering ashes
and mix them with tears
until I make cement bricks
thick enough to keep you--
and everyone else--out.