ALT ASSERTIVENESS TRAINING I like the integrity of what you have to say, drama or dream. What is credibility without assertiveness, endurance without skepticism? And the abrupt thrust of your bearing at me under a low-hanging branch. What shall any of these do without skeletons as ideas? I hear the tango beginning, the waltz that is loss. Crossed logs in the chimney. .. Without aggressiveness, hope, I couldn't conquer any of it. There'd be no piece of it to bring back to you, saying, "This is me." A lie among others we're exposed to. And when the needle finally swung it was wrapped in rags, in pitch blackness. I escaped from the dream of living into a fairy tale with no happy ending, no ending at all, only bedtime to live ever after. You could climb a fence amid barberries and never see the departing smile on the swan's face. Only your need will be redeemed when you dwell again among us, much misunderstood. For now your glass prayer encases both of us.