It was a chance encounter after my exam.
While we made small talk something he said struck me
like the smell of meat in a butchers:
''she has the weight of the world on her shoulders''.

Something so simple provoked my thoughts,
Revisiting memories I had put in a box.
The day you came home, and lay on the couch
You cried silently like a terrified child.

What had happened I couldn't have known,
I didn't understand your troubles.

I know you're different, more fragile than most.
But somehow I forget, while I get caught in my own life.
The baggy under-eyes, the pure exhaustion,
It somehow becomes commonplace and I think nothing of it.

But of course I should.

The wilted rose, so beautiful even after it's withered,
So too is your face as you worry, about us, about everything.
Is it rude of me to think you shouldn't care?
That we're old enough to look after ourselves.

I wish I could show you more how much I love you.
How much I want to take the weight of the world off your shoulders.