Behind her hazel eyes, behind her brilliant smile

She bore a hidden cross

And she had borne it for a while

And she slipped and slid and came up sweating 

Beneath it's invisible weight, spirit often flagging 

Brow ridged by a shining, dripping gloss.

 

With each mistake, with each haunted action

Another weight was added, slowing her traction

And they helped bow and break her back

And they drug her down to tears

As she drowned on her silent fears

Warped by a mass of iron, thorny and black.

 

Within, the girl knew only  the chancy choices all around

But without, of that there was not a sound

And her friends thought her strong, and called her brave

But in reality she was naught but a cowardly knave.

 

She wished for sleep, she wished for peace

She wished for a painless, blank release

That would take her tears and lighten her cross

Take her on the long spotlighted trip across.

 

In her confusion, fear, despair

Came a warmth, a beacon light shining

And she got her release, one comforting and loving

Filled with goodwill and a stranger's care

As her anxiety and fear of the crowd went elsewhere.