A heart that has felt love

I dreamt of you, and in that dream I thought I was dreaming. It was confusing and yet vividly, I knew every dream I'd delivered specific messages to you. Be it messages that were kept in the heart last night or messages which I failed to deliver to you all along. The ending of the dream was exactly what I thought reality to be like - it felt real at that point of time, I felt that familiar warm embrace. - - - - - - - It makes you so vulnerable. It opens your chest and it opens your heart and it means someone can get inside you and mess you up. You build up all these defenses. You build up this whole armor, for years, so nothing can hurt you. Then one person wanders into your life.... You give him a piece of you. He don't ask for it. He does something one day like kiss you, or smile at you, and then your life isn't your own anymore. Love takes hostages. It gets inside you. It eats you out and leaves you crying in the darkness, so a simple phrase like maybe we should just be friends or how very perceptive turns into a glass splinter working its way into your heart. It hurts. Not just in the imagination; not just in the mind, it's a soul-hurt, a body-hurt, a real gets-inside-you-and-rips-you-apart pain.