You’re trying to be so brave. Silent in your pain. You won’t say a word because you know me too well, know how much it kills me to see you suffer and know there’s not a blasted thing I can do about it.

If I could take it from you, bear it for you, I would. All I want to do is shield you from it, stand in gap and fight it off for you. I swear I would, if someone would just show me how.

You show everybody else your inner strength, the steel that makes you who you are. But I see the fear that lies beneath it, quiet and still—but it’s there, warring with the pain that’s tearing you apart.

Come here, pal. Let me hold you, if only just this one time, so you can feel safe. Then you can drop that fierce expression you show the world to prove you’re not beaten yet. Then maybe—just maybe—I can cry.

~ Brit

5/20/02