Shelter

Shelter

It was winter when I saw you in the corner
Sat down taking shelter from the rain
And I thought to myself, maybe I ought to
Offer my umbrella for a change
As clouds began to darken, flat and fleeting
With caution in the wind on which they're blown
With silver linings, drums of the same beating
Seeming stranger when you've faced the world alone
And though chivalry may come as second nature
There's vulnerability in sharing sacred space
With someone more important there's a danger
Someone who already holds a place
Deeper in the shelter than they fathom
In the belfry of sprung metal, wired, trussed
Flapping round inside, somehow we have them
Caught beneath the fabric with our trust
A phantom of a host who's never dwelt there
A ghost of future echoes yet to be?
Fluttering in shadows as our heart scares
Our mind decides the forms we choose to see
As notions churn and flap around the belfry
Fantasies, they fly amidst the folds
Sprung steel, tines so taut, yet they won't tell me
Of the things that haunt this framework web, they hold
Butterflies, bright, flitting round our stomachs
Black bats casting shadows on the heart
Either way integral to our running
Either way an all important part
So bear in mind the gift of an umbrella
Regardless of how casual or plain
It can sometimes mean much more than they will tell you
… sometimes it's more than shelter from the rain