Sometimes life just strips you bare
With cruel words or thoughtless actions
The barren ache of a lover’s “don’t care”
The flaying words of heightened passions.
Sometimes life just leaves you huddling
Turning your back on life and light
Hugging to yourself the sorely troubling
Anguish of your lonely plight.
Sometimes life sends you nights spent alone
Fighting the nightmares with hands cut raw
Staring into darkness as blank as bone
As your thoughts obsessively worsen the sore.
Sometimes life, like some mystic rite
Demands that you strip yourself totally bare
And face the darkness of your inner night
To discover the limits of what you can bear.
Sometimes life, through suffering, shows you
That nude can be both strong and frail
As, through exposure, your courage grows, you
Learn naked warriors can still prevail.
This was inspired by the monday mural at poefusion – the evocative image above uploaded to photobucket by ncajayon4.
Words that sing 
a positive poem, very strong way of thinking
An interesting take on the prompt. Nicely done.
-Nicole
Yes. Sometimes it really does do that.
I saw this drawing on Poefusion yesterday and was stricken by its beauty. You’ve done a lovely job letting it inspire this poem 😉
wow powerful poem. it really moved me.
Lirone, this gives women everywhere a reason to fight through all their troubles and find the life that they so long for themselves. I think women can surprise themselves sometimes with the strength they find. Nice job. Have a nice day.
Thank you for your comments – I’m glad that this has struck a chord!
I think our lives often teach us that strength requires armour… closing off and protecting ourselves, driving others away.
But for me, real strength means daring to be open, being ourselves, and trying to get closer to people. It’s this strength I had in mind in writing the last verses.
It’s a very feminine type of strength… though as I wrote in response to earlier comments here, that doesn’t mean it’s just for women!
Lovely!
You nailed it! Excellent piece, thank you for sharing it. I have a friend that just received her fist dose of chemo, after losing her son to suiside. I know she would like your work.
Tammy, my heart goes out to your friend – either event alone would be more traumatic than anything I’ve ever experienced, and I can’t imagine what it’s like to experience both together. I’d be humbled and delighted if my words were of any help to her at all.