the strong one

isn't it hard

to be the one who has to give advice?

isn't it hard

to be the strong one?

i see the skyline blurred through the plastic on your back screen door

not unlike the faces of the people who keep turning up in the places we go

the ones we'd never see if things weren't going so well

when i was a torn jacket hanging on the barbed wire

you cut me free

and sewed me up and here i am

isn't it hard

to be the one whose phone rings all day everyday?

isn't it hard

to be the strong one?

mouths move without vision

without regard for consequences

eyes fill with memories poisoned by intimate knowledge of failure to love

sometimes

sometimes

doesn't the light seem to move so far away?

you help your sisters

you help your old lovers

you help me but who do you cry to?

'cause isn't it hard

to be the one who gathers everybody's tears?

isn't it hard

to be the strong one?