Friends?

He was never kin to me
For I did not kill his murderers.

To him I merely was a tool:
a pretty one, perhaps,
but efficiently obedient,
to be used in any fitting way -
even to eternal agony
for the sake of his perpetual youth.

No, I did not kill his murderers.
Instead, I joined them.

Maybe I had nowhere else to go.
Waiting for the base to blow -
To find instead
They'd failed his paranoid intent,
taking off without me -
No.
I gunpointed myself aboard.

But they accepted me.
No justified suspicions tossed me out.
They didn't question why.
Nothing asked was more than I would give,
Any face I chose to show
was taken at face value.
Oh, of course, to some it was treading
on dangerous ground to come too close.
That suited me -
I had armour of my own to maintain.

I sought no better market for my services
though I could have left at any handy stop.
Maybe that was why I chose to stay:
Free to go, there was no reason to.

Dorian was right.
They could not help but care.
And, strange enough,
there was some room for me.

-- Kathryn A