The Deer & The Fox

Just because I am vulnerable, doesn’t mean that you aren’t weak in my gaze.
Just because I am hurt, doesn’t mean it is any safer to walk on my grounds.
Just because I am drowning, doesn’t mean you can evade my blaze.
Just because I am broken, doesn’t mean I am untouchable.
   
But don’t expect my trust to come as easy as a walk in the park.
And don’t complain when my edges get too sharp.

Because, I may be the deer and you may be the fox.
But, that doesn’t make me any less dangerous.

Because, I may be wounded from all of your games.
But, that doesn’t mean I can’t cause you the same amount of pain.

Because, I may be the shards of broken glass on the floor,
But, beware because one false step and you’ll be spending a lifetime,
picking out the shrapnels that I left behind.

-The Deer & The Fox, a poem I wrote sometime last year

Feeling Vulnerable,

This is reality. We are a constant cycle from deer to fox, you will never stay in one roll. Sometimes it’s a matter of years before you cycle to the next vulnerability rating, sometimes it’s only a matter of who you are associating with. And for me, it is only from bonds formed without a word spoken, that I am ever the fox.

But neither role is easy. In being the deer, you must learn to accept the role of a follower, the role of being in constant danger and still holding ground. You must learn to dance in a relationship where you are of the lesser. And in the meantime, be okay, be emotionally stable, with all of this. Well do that or have nights where you cry while rocking yourself back and forth. But don’t worry honey, that stage doesn’t last for long. After time, you learn to have tears without crying. After time, you will not be sad, or happy, or angry, you will be emotionless about the hell that you go through. Unless being the deer isn't hell, but we’ll get to that later.

Now you are a fox, you may not even know it. That’s the way most of them are. In the art of being a fox in a community of deer you learn that if you take advantage of your power, you will find yourself with a limited amount of people left in your life. In acting this way the only thing holding on to the left over people is an intangible, emotion driven source that nor you or the deer can touch. But if you are the fox and you take as cautious steps as the deer, maybe, just maybe, you will keep all of the people important in your life. And after time, the deer will still graze from a sunlit meadow and you will keep a stable amount of happiness. But, beware because one false step and you’ll be spending a lifetime, picking out the shrapnels that they left behind.

 

photo credits to A Lovely Lark