Hidden behind a perfectly prepared cloak of invisibility

Personalised meticulously for this latest victim

Expertly woven from the delicate and fragile fibres

Of their current victim's soul.

 

Interlaced with personality traits

Vulnerabilities plucked, deepest secrets stolen

Intimate thoughts intertwined in the fabric

To be worn by this charming illusionist.

 

A victim, in awe of this love they have found

This soul mate so longed for, impossibly perfect

Whose shower of love and adoring affection

Diverts prying eyes as the power takes hold.

 

Lured by the cloak's alluring glow

The unlucky chosen is allowed beneath

As the enchantment continues to blind and mislead

Those outside the cloak in hypnotic bliss.

 

Any scent of suspicion expertly deflected

Angelic image professionally projected

Whilst the devil beneath it grows stronger and wiser

And the victim is quickly subdued.

 

As the cloak does its job of deceptive entrapment

The narcissist's game levels up

Coaxing their victim away from supporters

From safe and secure, to alone and unknown.

 

Gradually more fibres of being are transferred

From this kind, gentle human so carefully chosen

To the cloak of concealment that covers the shell

Of a victim whose pride has been covertly stolen.

 

Now it is easy to chip away at the prize

Dig in hard, twist the knife, confuse and deprive

Direct the performance without fear of discovery

Strip away at the few remaining wisps of sanity.

 

Only now is the master’s true identity revealed

But this poor broken soul isn't sure of their mind

Is it them? Or the other? They will carry the blame

Oblivious to the narcissist's overt burning flame.

 

Irreversibly traumatised, broken, tormented,

Ashamed, disbelieving, confused and forlorn

Yet, a tiny spark lives, igniting hope's flame

In the heart of a human who WILL live again.

 

Must escape from the cloak; take a breath, find the sun

Reach out for support, tell the truth, return home 

But the cloak has no give, it binds tighter; it chokes

The secrets it keeps won't allow for release.

 

With luck, the time comes to break free, to tell all

To prove it's a fake, an insidious con

So the cloak is ripped, cut and torn, laid bare

Its fibres dispersed, disappeared, never there.

 

But unlike the weave so readily undone

The cloak's binding spell woven through life

Continues to seduce by illusionary entrapment

Non-believers ensnared; disbelief remains rife.

 

A victim left blamed for ruining this work of art

All sympathy reserved for their covert abuser

Who remains respected for their valiant morality

With whom ungrateful lies can never compete.

 

From one trauma to another. A cage, now a wall.

Insanity sanctioned. Raw pain set on fire.

Why can no-one see what has happened, the truth?

The insane insidiousness of covert abuse.