The things between

 

We're are doing this for them,

they convinced themselves,

by withholding the words they should have said.

With meek eyes, we shrieked in pain,

for the silence they assumed would save,

the precious innocence they thought we had.

But we already knew,

for the words floated in their unshed tears

and hovered on their tired shoulders.

Yet we found solace in knowing that they didn't know we knew,

when we had to safeguard the lifeguards,

from confronting their fears

and carefully appease the monsters in their closet.




photo credit: pixabay.com