Duty of the Outlet
Emotions are draining for an outlet.
Unescapable
Irreliable
They're shoved farther and farther
Crawling to cram themselves into corners
Of their mind.
Of their heart.
Intricate staircases
Built upon endless sentences and declarations of love
Loves that can never be confessed
Loves that burn with such a fire
Such a passion
That outlets become a necessity.
Such is the duty of an outlet.
The shoulder to cry on,
The crutch to lean on,
The friend to ramble to.
Such is the duty of an outlet
One they do without a complaint or a qualm.
Outlets know what they're meant for.
They live for it.
Outlets were crafted from empathy
Molded by betrayal, heartbreak, isolation
And forged by a desire to be the outlet
That they never had.
And so the outlets absorb the emotions.
Listen and respond to the endless sentences
About the tendrils of shadows in your mind.
They cradle and repair the shattered glass
Caused by unrequited love
Or the stones thrown by those you once thought would never toss them
Or by the tap-tap-tap dancing of those your hopes and dreams gave another chance.
They listen and guide and shelter.
Such is the duty of the outlet.
Such is the duty of the outlet.
But who is there for them?
Who is there
To hold the hands repeatedly bashing into their own skull?
To mop the tear-flooded ground?
To force the nails away from the skin?
Who is there when the outlet
Needs their own?
Who is there for when their own and everyone else's emotions
Start spilling over?
For when guilt starts wrapping around
Tighter and tighter
Lifting them higher and higher
Until they can't feel the ground below.
Until they're dangling and gasping for breath
For freedom
For relief
For someone to notice?
Such is the fate of the outlet.
To be isolated while being surrounded,
To feel guilt's noose tighten when you're too broken-
Too broken for others to use and go to.
Too broken to function because
Who wants a damaged outlet?
Such is the duty of the outlet.
A smiling, pure, innocent-seeming facade
Gleaming from the screen.
A beacon of comfort for those they love.
And this is the want of the outlet.
To be needed, trusted, confided in,
To help and be there for those they adore.
But this is the curse of the outlet.
To do all of these
Alone
and
Broken
Scared to be tossed aside once everyone knows.
Yes
This is the duty of the outlet.