As long as I remember,
It's been me against the world.
As long as I'd myself,
It mattered not what else unfurled.

When I was 8 my father left
My mother for the sea.
When I was 9 my mother left,
But what she left was me.

I bundled up against the cold
Ignored my fear; ignored the hold
Her memory had upon my soul
...When I was only 9 years old.

I didn't want to be alone,
but Solitude and I,
Like kindred spirits seldom strayed
from one another's side.

My family means much more to me
than you, perhaps, suspect.
My family means abandonment,
rejection and neglect.

When I was barely 10 years old
I fled the orphan home
My sister stayed behind -
The only family I had known.

I left her there, my last of kin
Put on my coat, stuck out my chin
And found a kind of strength within.
...When I was just a child of ten.

I didn't want to be alone,
but Solitude and I,
Like long-lost blood relations found
our fates were intertwined.

But my own spirits withered in her constant company.
The closer we became the more demoralized I'd be.
Until I swore no more to seek my peace in her caress
And now I cling to anything to void her emptiness.

I never trust in anyone
who isn't in my debt
And them I trust in least of all,
lest faith beget regret.

I've learned to keep my enemies
as close as I keep friends.
Until I cannot say where one
begins or other ends.

I draw each one into my sphere
I lure them in; I hold them dear
And never let them go for fear
...Their friendship, too, should disappear.

I've sworn no more to seek my peace in Solitude's caress
But now I find that nothing can replace her emptiness.