You aren’t sleeping well tonight
Your fingers are tapping out a slow waltz on your thigh
You’re singing a symphony to yourself comprised entirely of sighs
It’s become your nightly lullaby
Inaudible but for the rise and fall of your chest
Pressing up against sheets that shouldn’t weigh so much
But cotton comes plucked at a heavy price,
And as you twist into the wrinkles and the mattress springs
You try to feel how many hundreds of threads encase you
You never could afford to understand silk sheets
With thread counts higher than you could easily count sheep
Because you know high priced products aren’t necessarily high performing
You never feel comfortable in luxury
Because you are too down to earth
Your toes curl around pebbles pressing into the soles of your feet
That other people brusquely shake out of their boots,
Annoyed they have to unknot their laces
And pay attention to something so small
You wrap your arms around yourself cautiously
Like you’re too fragile for your own hands
Scarcely believing you haven’t already shattered
When you genuinely fear that everyone your life touches becomes defective
Broken and immobile no matter how hard you try to prevent it
You have 20/20 vision but you don’t see very clearly
You hold our tarnished selves together with your smiles
You prevent others from slapping their self destruct buttons
Glowing countdowns halted by your open arms
You taught us that hugs given without reservation don’t need any motivation
That there were no jagged rocks waiting beneath potential friendships
That we could dive into brand new relationships and never reach the bottom
I promise you don’t have to pretend you’re always happy
You are more than one emotion
Let that strained grin fall with your walls
Shake up a can and spray paint “H<3PE” into the cracked concrete here, next to us
Let us catch you when words fail you and you’re bursting with tears
Know that sometimes your own wings forget how to fly