| The weight of the world on your shoulders can't compare to the weight of a thousand worries on your mind. Concerns, responsibilities, relationships, homework, tests, quizzes, classes, lessons, rehearsals, performances... Everything becomes a performance. A routine task. A mindless or mind-numbing daily repetition with no rhyme or reason, no point to be found, no goal to achieve but survival. Using sleep to escape, finding time to heal... But wounds are reopened with the dawning of each day as you crawl on your hands and knees across broken glass, drag yourself through thorns and fire. A never-ending punishment. But what was the crime? The pain... The pain that resounds in the hollow heart. The bitterness... The bitterness that escapes with each tear. The fear rising in every idle, lonely moment. The longing... for a distraction, for relief, for comfort... for another's presence. The blank stare of a teddy bear does little to console, and no one sees... No one knows... No one listens... Screams echo in the night and they, startled, look around... drown it out with the stereo. Oh, they hear... But they don't understand. "Be happy!" "Have fun!" "Relax!" Each chide rips deeper into the soul. And in solitary confinement, in utter isolation, voice is given, but release never comes. Tears run down tracing a salty path down the anguished face of a person in desperate need. Through the watches of the night, eyes wide, thoughts whirling, body burning for rest, repose... it never comes. When will it end? ...When will it end? |
| Pressure Valve |