When I see you smile
I am filled with hope.
For if you can smile
whilst carrying this burden,
heavier than I will never know
nor care to face, then,
there is hope.
For despite your pain, you are there
for me, as you always have been, with
a kind word, a warm embrace, a hand
to wipe away my tears.
But ...
I have seen beneath the smile,
the mask you wear to hide your pain.
The fear of crumbling never very far away.
Just one word can be a trigger
and you're back there, reliving
every vivid detail
like it were yesterday.
I long to find the rewind button
for your life, perhaps erase a scene
or two, record another ending,
the one you deserved to have.
But I can't erase the past,
the action replays of
the night you lost him through
the hand of another. The days
and nights you waked your
firstborn son before laying him
to rest among the countless,
innocent dead of our country.
The hours, searching for reason,
praying the nightmare would end.
I can't take all that away
but I can tell you that I
and many others love you for
the strength and courage that fills
you heart, for the love you bestow upon
so many and for the hand, you reach out
across the barricades.
Honorable mention
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