PoetBay.com, the poetry webpage where you can publish your poems and short stories

Retaining Wall

There is quiet as I answer the phone,
but through space and time zones
I hear him, struggling to calm
the storm churning within him,
manhood requiring control,
a wall he believed he had to build,
as the emotions blocked, break through,
and he says, “I am so tired,”
and I completely understand.

I have felt this, said this, lived this,
this tiredness held as a retaining wall,
keeping all the self-doubt,
the anger and the fear of not ever being
- enough -
from breaking me,
allowing me to push through,
act normal,
wear the same wall he wears.

There is not much I can do
when an ocean is between us
but love passes through the space,
an assurance of understanding,
support, belief that he is just lost
in the moment, not in the journey,
the path misty in a fog of fear,
but onward he must walk.

He is too young,
too brilliant,
too handsome,
too filled with promise
to let the demons win.

God, please don’t let the demons win.

Poetry by Melinda K Zarate