Shell Suit

He walks in a silent world
but he is not deaf.
It suits him to live in a shell,
tightly wrapping cocoon layers
upon layers.
Blocking out thoughts fears and desires
once it was different,
once he dreamt of light and of magic,
Once he believed,
(perhaps not in a religious way),
That mystery and imagination,
held the key to humanity and feeling.
One day it went sour.
The river of thought ran dry.
The warmth of love became embers;
Cold and calculating.
Finally to rest in congealed hardness.
There was no pain,
Only numbness and a suit of shell,
an armour of invisibility.

To this day there is little hope
of awakening.

"Go crawl from your shell and feel
the sun the rain and weep".
Subconsciously the thought ricochets
in the empty rooms of this
head.

He does not know what to do about it.
Yet. One day there may be hope.

Tony Fisher,
October 94. For Anne.