Self Reliance
You knock,
And I open the door to my mind
To listen to your truth.
My ways are wrong, you say,
Have been; will be---
I cannot hope to live forever on my own.
Cannot live at all,
Unless I accept a death on my part,
Consecrated millennia ago,
From the blood of a man I only know from afar.
I believe in independence alone,
And protest.
If anyone has to die for me,
I would prefer it to be myself,
For to die for the sake of my soul
Would be the ultimate in self-reliance.
[A/N: I still don't think this poem is going where I want it… Feedback would be lovely.]