Sapper

I didn’t realise,
at first,
what was happening:
a slight tremor here,
a crack in the wall there.

You chipped away
at me,
working, I would assume,
to change me into an image
of something you needed.
Insecurities were fed
by incessant, and targetted,
whispered wounding words,
that shook the foundation
of who I was.

I didn’t realise,
at first,
what you had planned:
a quake here,
an explosion there.

When the charges were set,
and the plunger pressed,
something died
in the collapsing edifice,
but that something
was not me.